The Case of the Divine Circus
by frostykitten
Summary: Sequel to CCK. Hermione and Draco had thought themselves done with divine nonsense, but now there are goddesses speaking to them through Ministry fireplaces and creatures dying all over the world from a mysterious illness. At least this time "Earl" is too busy to try and help them... or is he?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**A/N: Hello readers! So, in case you don't know, this is the sequel to The Case of the Creature Kidnappings. I recommend you read that first or bits of this one might get confusing.**

**I know I said I wasn't going to post this until it was completely written, but I'm halfway through writing the last chapter (there's 33 if you're wondering) and I got impatient. Since it's already written, posting should be pretty regular. I'm aiming for at least once a week.**

**As always, thanks to irianaceleste for betaing.**

**~Frosty**

Like a general planning strategic moves on a map, Hermione set the large table in the Malfoy dining room, carefully nudging every fork and spoon into just the right places. There was a House Elf watching her with large, anxious eyes, but she ignored the creature. Everything had to be perfect, and Hermione knew that if this was going to be so, she had to do it herself.

Whatever bout of insanity had led her to go along with Draco's idiotic plan to shag like rabbits instead of answering the questions of her friends had lasted several days, but once the pheromones had faded and the chafing began, she'd been forced back to reality. Avoiding her friends and the real world – including the Ministry's laws – wasn't going to do her any good in the long run.

When everything was finally perfect, she reviewed it one last time before nodding and leaving the room. She didn't notice the anxious House Elf spring into action, shifting all the dishes ever so slightly so that the table setting fit with the elf's view of perfection instead of Hermione's. Hermione would notice and be displeased, but hopefully it would be after the guests arrived.

* * *

"Granger, you're being ridiculous and the Hose Elves are getting fed up with your micro-managing. Potter and the Weasel aren't going to withhold their forgiveness if the table isn't set to perfection or if the soup is too watery. Calm down," Draco ordered. He was lounging in his bed, watching her flit around his room looking for the perfect outfit.

Hermione had been a basket case since sending a letter to Harry with an apology for brushing him off and an invitation asking him and Ron to lunch at the Manor, where she would give them full access to the garden to investigate the statue that looked suspiciously like the missing Kate. Her anxiety had taken the form of obsessively trying to make everything perfect. She knew Draco was right and that micro-managing everything about the lunch wasn't going to make them forgive her, but it gave her something to do to keep her mind off of all the potential for disaster.

Harry and Ron were definitely mad at her and she had invited them into Malfoy Manor with _Draco _present. Even with careful management, a script for them to read, and heavy-duty calming potions, there was a very good chance that someone would get hexed.

"You," Hermione said when she was finally dressed to her satisfaction, "Are going to get dressed, go down there to lunch, and _behave_. I don't need you there making snarky comments and getting Harry and Ron all riled up. This is going to be hard enough without you deliberately riling my friends."

In a horribly false attempt to appear innocent, Draco widened his eyes and forcibly restrained the smirk that his twitching lips hinted at. "I'm hurt that you have such a skewed picture of my character, Granger."

She snorted. "My picture of your character is very accurate, thank you. Now if you don't have anything nice to say once they're here, don't say anything at all."

Draco's shirt was half buttoned when Hermione poked her head back inside the room. "And remember to make sure Sylvester is secured!"

The small flying horse that Eros had left with them was just as much trouble as one would expect from something created by such a troublesome deity. Every morning, it was a battle to keep Sylvester away from their breakfast. The small horse had a strange attraction to scrambled eggs, yet didn't possess a stomach that could handle the food. On those annoyingly frequent occasions when he managed to mysteriously escape whatever room they locked him in, he stormed the breakfast table, practically inhaled all the scrambled eggs, and then immediately threw them up again. Once this ordeal had been enacted, the small horse had a habit of collapsing into a puddle of his own vomit right there on the table and making pathetic little squeaking sounds until someone helped him.

The last thing Hermione needed was Sylvester unleashed on her already edgy guests.

* * *

Harry and Ron had been understandably stony to her when she opened the Manor door and welcomed them inside. She led them to the dining room, only experiencing the briefest moment of panic when she saw that the table settings had all been changed slightly. The House Elves were going to get a talking to once Harry and Ron left.

"This is ridiculous," Harry said, sitting down and frowning as plates piled with food appeared in the middle of the table, just as they used to at Hogwarts. "What possible good do you think will come from making us sit down to eat in _Malfoy Manor_?"

As an answer, Hermione slanted her eyes over to Ron, who had already reached for the food and loaded up his plate. She knew that her friend was still upset with her, but she also knew that he had never been one to let his anger get in the way of his appetite. Hermione half hoped that, after such a wonderful meal, Ron would be lethargic and the edge would be taken off of his anger. Harry, on the other hand, wasn't going to be so easy to sway.

Obviously getting her point, Harry's eyes narrowed slightly. "Serving us lunch won't make us forgive you for the horrible way you treated us last week, Hermione." He shuddered minutely. "I'm never going to get the images out of my head."

Of course, that was the moment when Draco entered. "Can't get me out of your head, Potter? I always knew you had a thing for me."

Hermione shot him a look that would have probably peeled the paint from the wall behind him if he hadn't been there to block it. Unfortunately, Draco had built an impressive immunity to her glares and was able to saunter into the room and take his seat unscathed.

Immediately, the already tense atmosphere in the room worsened. Draco brought with him an aura of arrogance and contempt that grated on most people under the best of circumstances. Sometimes his attitude had its uses, but certainly not at an apology lunch.

When Ron stopped eating to glare at Draco, Hermione knew for certain that the lunch wasn't going to end well.

"What is _he _doing here?" Ron demanded, thankfully after swallowing his food.

"I live here, Weasel."

Ron reddened. "What I meant was what are you doing interfering with our talk with _our _friend?"

Sensing a fight coming on, Hermione put a stop to it before it escalated. She didn't want to have to explain to Narcissa how a nice lunch had degraded until the furniture was in danger. Narcissa would probably understand once she heard who was in attendance, but it would still be embarrassing for Hermione. Ruining furniture was more of a concern inside Malfoy Manor than it was elsewhere; in Malfoy Manor, the majority of the furniture had been around for the Dark Ages and was more valuable than anything Hermione would ever own.

Some of the oldest furniture had started to develop a bit of a mind of its own from prolonged exposure to magic, and wouldn't take well to being destroyed. Hermione didn't want to be around in the event that the furniture decided to trounce the Malfoys for being abusive.

"Draco is here because I want him here – and he's promised to behave," Hermione said with a pointed look towards her partner.

Smirking, Draco crossed his arms behind his head and tipped his chair, balancing it on the back legs. Hermione gave him a reproachful look for tilting his chair, but she knew that it was a losing battle and didn't waste any more effort on such pointlessness. He was too busy staring at something on the ceiling to notice her glare anyway. She let him entertain himself; as long as he wasn't baiting her friends or causing any trouble, he could do what he wanted.

"Are you going to tell us how Kate got into Malfoy's garden and how she was turned into a statue?" Harry asked, always right to the point. Until he got his answers it was unlikely that he'd allow himself to be distracted. He had finally given in and put a few things on his plate, but he hadn't shown even the slightest inclination to eat some of the delicious lunch that the Malfoy elves had prepared.

Hermione bit her lip. She glanced at Draco for help, but he was still staring at the ceiling and smirking. It looked like she was on her own.

"I can't." She was genuinely saddened by the necessity of withholding the information from her friends, but she couldn't exactly tell Harry that a goddess had taken offense at Kate's schemes and decided that Azkaban wasn't enough of a punishment for her crimes. Despite the prevalence of magic in their society, there was no place for the divine in their laws.

Harry's eyebrows furrowed. "You're not going to tell me anything?"

"I wish I could," she said, her tone begging him to understand, "But I can't."

Obviously channelling his inner Dumbledore, Harry steepled his fingers in front of his face. If his glasses had been of the half-moon variety, Hermione was sure that he would have been looking at her over the tops of them. "Hermione," he said very slowly and carefully, "Are you in some kind of trouble?"

Again, she glanced at Draco, but he was still staring up at the ceiling. Hermione wasn't thinking that Draco would have any answers, she'd merely thought that maybe he could wordlessly communicate an answer that Harry would find satisfactory. What she hadn't thought was that Harry would misinterpret her glance.

Wondering what in the world Draco was staring at, Hermione followed Draco's eyes to the chandelier that hung above the table. It was an ornate thing in beautiful cream colour with gold leaf and multiple crystals, but it wasn't the actual chandelier that had Draco's attention, it was the emerald green, lacy bra that hung from one of the branches of said chandelier. Hermione immediately went white and averted her eyes back to her friend, praying that neither of them would look up.

"I see," Harry said, shooting Malfoy a look and obviously getting an entirely false impression form her little drama.

"No, Harry, it's not what you're thinking!"

It was too late. Harry was already up from the table and storming towards the door, probably going back to the Ministry so that he could unleash the legislative wrath of the Ministry on Draco.

Hermione chased after him. She really didn't want to show him the bra, but horrifying her friends was preferable to having Draco arrested.

Ron watched Harry and Hermione leave and took a different approach. He grabbed Malfoy's collar, yanked him forward until they were nose to nose and growled, "If you so much as _look _at Hermione threateningly, I'll make sure that you never see the light of day again."

Finished, Ron thrust Draco back into his chair and followed after Harry.

The only reason he was allowed to walk away unscathed after uttering such a threat was because Draco knew that he was already in enough trouble and any retaliation on his part would lead him to probably weeks of a lonely bed. While he didn't like to admit it, he'd grown accustomed to having Granger around and the thought of her going back to her own home wasn't an appealing one.

As Hermione watched her friends walk down the front steps of Malfoy Manor headed towards the front gates where they could Disapparate, she had time to do some quick calculations in her head. She had Draco had made love on the dining room table two days ago. There was no way that the bra had gone unnoticed by the House Elves for so many days, so she had to believe that it was some kind of sabotage attempt on Draco's part. His amused smirk only added to this theory. She didn't want to believe that Draco would do such a thing, but there was so much evidence against him, not to mention the fact that few things pleased him more than upsetting Harry and Ron.

When Hermione returned to the dining room, all prepared to berate Draco within an inch of his life, she found that she wasn't the only one with that idea.

Narcissa was standing there with her hands on her hips, holding Hermione's bra in one hand and using the other one to push Draco's shoulder. She looked only seconds away from twisting his ear like he was an errant child. If it wasn't so horrifying, Hermione would have been amused at the way Draco's shoulders hunched slightly under his mother's scolding.

"We _eat _here!" Narcissa was saying, "I don't care what you do with Hermione. I think she's a lovely girl, but you don't need to be defiling her where we eat – and don't even try to pretend that this wasn't your idea, Draco Lucius Malfoy, this has your work written all over it."

Mortified, Hermione met Draco's eyes behind Narcissa's back. From his expression, she could tell that he knew Hermione was angry with him.

Quickly, before Narcissa was done yelling at Draco, Hermione retreated from the dining room and made her way back to Draco's bedroom. She really didn't want to face the embarrassment of looking into Narcissa's eyes after hearing what she'd said to Draco, it was too humiliating.

It was a surprisingly long time before Draco found her. Narcissa must have had a whole list of things that he'd done to anger her for it to take so long getting it all off of her chest. Hermione only hoped that the brief portion of the scolding that she'd witnessed was the only sex related part of the lecture.

"In my defense," he said as soon as he entered the room and took in Hermione's stormy expression, "I planned on horrifying them with images that they'd never be able to get out of their heads, not embarrass you like that."

At least he understood part of why she was so upset.

"You knew how important this lunch was to me," Hermione said. At first, she'd been all set to yell his ears off just like his mother had been doing, but then she had realized that doing such things weren't going to make Draco change his nature. He was never going to get along with her friends if he never tried, and he didn't seem willing to put in that little bit of effort even though it meant so much to her.

Draco sighed, feeling a little bad that he had played a pretty large role in the distress that his girlfriend clearly felt.

"Granger..." He trailed off, not really having a direction with his sentence. There was nothing he could say that would make her less upset with him about his running off of her friends. He hadn't put the bra there, but he hadn't done a thing to subtly remove it once he'd noticed that it was hanging from the light fixture. It would have been pretty simple for him to overtly point his wand at the garment and vanish the thing before anyone could notice it.

After waiting a few beats to see if he would at least apologise, Hermione sighed. "Don't bother, Draco."

Beside Hermione was her beaded bag with the undetectable expansion charm. Over the week she'd spent with Draco, a number of her things had found their way into his room. She'd taken those things and packed them up, ready to be taken back to where they belonged.

Draco's eyes were drawn to the bag as she picked it up and stood from his bed. He knew what that bag meant but couldn't seem to bring himself to beg her to stay. While he'd changed a little because of her good influence, he hadn't changed so much that he was willing to beg her not to leave him. That was a level of desperate he'd yet to reach – and hoped he never did.

"I'm going to go back to my apartment," Hermione said in a monotone. "I'll see you at work tomorrow."

He wasn't really comforted by the fact that she wasn't going to ignore him again. There was an unpleasant feeling in the pit of Draco's stomach telling him that there were worse things than the silent treatment that his partner could do to him.

His pride not allowing him any other options, Draco let her leave.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**A/N: Hello readers! Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed and to irianaceleste for betaing!**

**To Summerful21: Yes I could update more than once a week right now, but it takes me forever to edit and I wouldn't be able to keep up that schedule. I didn't want to promise something I wouldn't be able to keep up for the whole story. So once a week, possibly more if I edit quickly. Thanks for the review!**

**To snowy owl: Thanks for the review! Sorry, I can't just post the whole thing. It's not edited. Trust me, you want the chapters edited.**

**~Frosty**

Hermione woke up the next day feeling as if she hadn't slept a wink. Judging from the dark bags marring the pale skin under Draco's eyes as he trudged into her office, he hadn't slept much better.

As she sat at her desk frowning at all the paperwork that had accumulated in her time off, Draco watched her. While she'd mumbled a greeting to him without looking up from the parchment in front of her when he first arrived and Draco had responded in kind, that was the extent of their interactions.

Normally, she would be frustrated that he wasn't saying anything to her when he was clearly in the wrong, but there was something very worrying in her files that had her distracted. Apparently, magical creatures all over the world were getting sick without any explanation.

"I'm going to get some tea," Draco eventually muttered, clearly too tired to even muster up a properly snarky remark.

Hermione was so engrossed in reading her file that she barely even acknowledged him. She was of course going to investigate immediately after her partner got back with his morning tea. It went without saying that Draco wasn't going to be happy about a field trip already, and she certainly wasn't going to listen to him whinge all day because he didn't get his morning tea.

A tiny whisper of sound had Hermione putting down her notes and tilting her head to the side as she focused on listening. Had Draco been there, he probably would have told her that she looked like a spaniel and teased her about it for the rest of the day. She had been upset with him for less than twenty four hours and she had _seen _him, yet she was missing him.

He was her partner and an integral part of a normal day. They'd been through a lot, but it was still a little overwhelming how much their relationship had changed in such a short amount of time. Missing him while still seeing him was something new, and she had a feeling it would take her a while to really get used to the shift in their relationship.

Pushing aside her irritation with Draco, Hermione focused on listening.

It happened again, drawing Hermione from her chair and out of her office. Something was calling her name in a strange whisper that seemed to come from far away. Hermione normally wouldn't let something so small distract her from important work, however there was a pull to this sound that she found she couldn't resist. Hermione was almost certain that there was magic behind the strange whisper.

The corridors were empty. It was late enough in the day that everyone already in their offices, yet not so late that people were starting to take their lunch breaks. Considering the number of different offices in the Ministry and the different hours a lot of them kept, it was interesting how, at certain times during the day, there was just no one to be found wandering the corridors. Hermione suspected that it wasn't a coincidence that this sound found her at just such a time.

She followed the sound all the way down to the atrium, which was just as empty as the rest of the building had been. It seemed like one of the fireplaces designated for Floo travel was what was calling her.

Hermione was confused but continued to follow the sound. Now that she was so close to the whisper, she realised that it didn't sound like a human voice. There was a certain quality to the speaker that left no room for disobedience. There was also something familiar to the voice.

A woman was in the hearth, but Hermione knew for a fact that the Ministry had disabled Floo calls in the atrium. To keep the occasionally high volumes of travellers using the Floo network moving at a reasonable pace, it was forbidden to stop traffic just to make a Floo call. It would take either very complicated or very powerful magic to get around the ancient enchantments on the fireplaces.

Hermione didn`t need to know that it would practically take a god to use the Ministry`s fireplaces as their own personal Floo because she recognised the face looking out at her from the flames.

"Artemis," said Hermione with some surprise. "To what do I owe this pleasure?" There was a little more sarcasm than necessary in Hermione's voice, but she just couldn't bring herself to show genuine enthusiasm towards the goddess who had been so involved in the disaster of a case that ended up with a human statue in Draco's back garden.

"Hermione Granger," Artemis said imperiously. "You were helpful to me before, so I'm here to warn you. Aphrodite is tenacious and vicious. I've subdued her for the moment, but she is not so easily cowed. She is not happy that you've helped me and will most likely target you. Be on the lookout."

Hermione nodded gravely. She should have known that they weren't done with the gods just because Kate had been brought to justice. "Thank you for the warning."

Regally, Artemis inclined her head.

"Is there anything else you can tell me about what she might do?" Hermione asked. It was better to get as much information as she could while Artemis was offering. Usually, the gods were as closed-mouthed as possible. They seemed to prefer to let mortals to just muddle through on vague hints as they did their best to avoid being killed.

Artemis stared over Hermione's shoulder while footsteps echoed around the atrium. When no one appeared, she turned her full attention back to Hermione.

"Aphrodite has friends among the gods, friends more than willing to help her get back on me and the mortals who assisted me in her humiliation. I do not have time to watch over you, but I did owe you something for your assistance. We are even now." She looked over Hermione's shoulder one more time and her eyes narrowed slightly. The footsteps were definitely louder now, someone was almost right behind Hermione.

Artemis disappeared from the flames just as Draco came up behind Hermione.

"What are you doing down here?" Draco asked. He was watching the fireplace suspiciously, probably having caught a flash of Artemis before she'd disappeared. His mind was probably jumping to the same conclusions that Hermione's had; it was most likely something divine that had interfered with the Ministry's ancient enchantments on the fireplaces.

Standing up, Hermione brushed some dust and a stray leaf from her knees. It was nearly impossible for the Ministry to keep such a high-traffic area clean. She turned to face her partner and the tilted her head slightly. Just from a quick glance, Hermione could tell that something was off, but she didn't ask him right there. Instead, Hermione backed away from the fireplace, jerking her head in the direction of her office for him to follow. She didn't want to talk openly about the gods where they could so easily be overheard. One never knew who or what was listening in, especially in a place so infused with magic.

Back in the office, Hermione explained Artemis' warning to Draco. His response was to tiredly run a hand through his hair and stare into his tea meditatively. Both of them had been counting on things getting easier once the gods were done with them, but it was starting to seem like the gods may not ever be done with them.

"I'm going to have to send Mother away," Draco finally said. "I refuse to have her caught in the crossfire if this gets out of hand."

Hermione understood his concern. Already, Narcissa was more involved than she should be. Living so close to the statue of Kate and with Sylvester the winged horse was more exposure to the divine than any mortal with any sense wanted to have. Kate had brought the quarrel with the gods too close to home when she'd left Artemis' prized golden doe in Narcissa's rose garden and Hermione knew that Draco would never show even the tiniest bit of remorse for Kate's fate. Distant relative or not, she had put Narcissa into indirect danger and Draco would never forgive her for it.

"How do you plan on getting your mother to leave the Manor for such a prolonged period of time?"

Narcissa was a force to be reckoned with when she wanted to be, and Draco was the type to bully everyone except his mother. He was going to have to have a pretty persuasive argument to get her out of the house. After raising him, Narcissa had a pretty well-developed sense of when her son was attempting to deceive her.

"I bought her and her annoying friend – the French one who always pinches my cheeks – tickets for a magical cruise. It was supposed to be her birthday present, but I can always just get her something else."

Not for the first time, Hermione was surprised by how thoughtful Draco could be when it came to his mother. If only he could have the same consideration for everyone else. Hermione couldn't help but think that Draco would never have ruined her lunch with Harry and Ron if he had respected her like he did his mother.

Hermione shook her head slightly, knowing that she was being ridiculous. Ever since the war, Draco had treated his mother as if she was breakable and made of glass, and Hermione knew that it would drive her insane if he treated her that way as well. She much preferred that the treat her like a grown woman who was more than capable of taking care of herself.

"Granger?"

She looked over at Draco to see that he appeared to be waiting for some kind of response to his plan.

"That would work," she murmured. Snapping out of her musings, Hermione got a better look at Draco, once again seeing that there was something bothering him. She spitefully thought about maybe just not asking what was wrong, because he'd been so cruel to her friends. Unfortunately, that just wasn't in her personality. "What's got you looking all haunted and mentally scarred?"

"Nothing," he said immediately. The response was suspiciously quick and she didn't believe it for a second.

Hermione just raised her eyebrows.

Apparently it had been really bothering him because Draco didn't take more prodding than that. The haunted look in his eyes worsened and he hunched his shoulders up slightly, something the proud Malfoy heir never did. Hermione had seen him face down terrifying magical creatures and vengeful gods out for his blood without even batting his eyes, but whatever had happened while he was getting his tea had clearly made a larger impact than that. It must have been truly terrible.

"There was a new beverage slave at the coffee cart," Draco started, "This time, a man. When he tried to give me green tea instead of orange pekoe, I put him in his place, and do you know what he said? When I called him a beverage slave he told me that he'd 'be any kind of slave I wanted him to be.'" The statement was followed by a shudder of horror. "Then he licked his lips really slowly and winked."

For a full minute, Hermione didn't say a thing, just stared at Draco with a completely blank expression. She was cherishing the mental image of Draco cowering in fear from a beverage slave just because the man had been forward with his interest. The man deserved some congratulations, something Hermione would be sure to do the next time she took a trip down to the beverage cart.

When the minute was up, she burst into laughter, her head thrown back and tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. After the stress that had been building since her warning from Artemis, it was nice to just let go and laugh for a moment. She ignored the growing displeasure on her partner's face. Draco had had this coming for a long time.

"It's not that hilarious," he snapped when he was finished watching her laugh. Draco didn't like to be all pathetic and soppy and he would never tell her, but he loved to watch her in those rare moments when she let herself laugh.

Hermione managed to stop the laughter, but she couldn't stop the occasional snicker that snuck out while she tried to talk. "It's karma finally getting you for years of abusing the coffee cart girls. It sounds like you've finally met your match."

He chose not to dignify that with a response.

In a few big gulps, Draco finished off his tea. He lazily pointed a finger towards the stacks of files on her desk. "Am I correct in assuming that we're going to be leaving because there's some helpless little furry somewhere that needs our assistance?"

She nodded. "There's some kind of magical creature pandemic. We're going to ground zero as soon as possible."

Draco threw his empty paper cup in the general direction of the rubbish bin and left the room without saying anything. Assuming that he was getting ready for their trip and possibly giving his mother her tickets while he was at it, Hermione went back to familiarising herself with the files.

* * *

Hermione had been partially correct in her assumptions; Draco was going to see his mother, give her the tickets and gather the stuff he needed to go out in the field, but he had a stop to make first.

Draco could count the number of times he'd been in Potter's office – none of them willingly - on one hand. This time was no different. If he wanted to make up for the - in his opinion - hilarious stunt he had pulled at Granger's little lunch, then he was going to have to speak to _Potter_.

Draco knocked on the door, reflecting that he would rather be lodging splinters of bamboo under his fingernails than visiting Potter. Even worse, Granger probably wouldn't even be thankful because _technically _this mess was his fault in the first place.

"Come in," Potter called from inside the room.

Warily, Draco did as he was bade. He even withheld the snarky comment that was on the tip of his tongue.

Potter was sitting behind his desk, probably poking his nose where it didn't belong. That's what the bastard was best at, getting himself tangled in messes that weren't any of his business.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Potter was even more hostile than usual, though Draco supposed that this was reasonable considering the stupid blighter believed that Draco was abusing Granger in some way.

Disregarding the hostility, Draco sauntered into the room and plopped himself into one of the two visitor's chairs in front of Potter's desk. He couldn't help but notice that Potter's chairs were considerably less comfortable than the ones in Granger's office. Hers had padding and were cushy with armrests, ideal of long days spent sitting there watching her work. Potter's chairs on the other hand, were straight backed, armless, wooden chairs; all business, like the man himself.

"I'm here to correct a misunderstanding," Draco finally said after sprawling his legs across the floor, the only way he could be remotely comfortable in the unforgiving chair. His position had the added bonus of making him appear completely nonchalant, as if his sex life didn't hang in the balance of this conversation.

"Which is?" Potter seemed eager to parade Draco out of the office. Suspicious.

"You left Granger's little lunch with the wrong impression. She's in a spot of trouble, but it has nothing to do with me – I'm in just as much trouble as she is." Not his most well worded sentence, but it got the point across just fine.

"And you're here because you want me to help?"

Draco snorted. "No, I'm here because I want you to keep your nose out of things that aren't any of your business. I can keep Granger perfectly safe without your interference."

Green eyes narrowed as Harry studied the blond that had invaded his office. "I'm supposed to just take your word for it that you're not hurting Hermione? What possible reason could I have to believe you?"

"How about you trust the fact that she's not the type to just take abuse from someone? She'd kick my arse if I ever tried such a thing – not that I ever would."

Potter was completely unimpressed with the statement.

Having been prepared for this but hoping it wouldn't be necessary, Draco leaned forward. "You're a Legilimens, yes?" Harry nodded. "I'll drop my barriers and let you rifle around in my head to make sure that I've never laid a violent hand on her."

Being the nosy bastard that he was, Potter was very eager to take Draco up on his offer.

Draco held up a long finger. "I have some stipulations first. You don't go fishing for information that isn't relevant to Granger. If I feel you starting to search for something about the statue in my garden, I'll shove you out of my mind and we'll both have to deal with migraines for the rest of the day, and my vengeance for that will be severe regardless of Granger's thoughts on my revenge schemes."

"I'm not a Slytherin, Malfoy. If I say I'm only going to look at anything other than your interactions with Hermione, then I'm not going to."

Draco bristled at the slur against Slytherins, but he didn't start an argument about it - even though Potter was a lot more "Slytherin" than the wanker wanted to admit. Starting an argument would only prolong the time he spent in Potter's office and Draco wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

Leaning forward, Draco focused on dropping his mental shields. "Let's get this over with then."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**A/N: Hello readers! It has occurred to me that if I want this story and the Deceptive Natures sequel AND the conclusion to This Incarnation out by the end of the summer, I'm going to have to post more than once a week and step up the editing. I'm not making promises, but I'm going to TRY for twice a week. **

**Just for the record, I've shamelessly tweaked real mythology for my own purposes (in this chapter and in further chapters, I probably won't remember the warning later). Some of it may not match up with actual myths, but I tried to keep them as true as possible.**

**As always, thanks to all the wonderful people who reviewed and to irianaceleste for betaing.**

**To Teentypist: new chapter, see? We can't have you dealing with crushing disappointment for too long.**

**~Frosty**

Hermione was assembling the paperwork she needed for the case. As always when going out of the country, there were a very specific series of hoops that she needed to jump through and she wanted to be ready so that they could leave quickly once Draco returned. She also wanted the file relating to their case ready for him to read. After the disaster that happened the last time Draco refused to read the file, she wasn't going to let him talk his way out of reading one again – at least not without a fight.

When Draco came into the office holding his temples and looking more pale than usual, she knew that it was going to be an even larger fight than she had anticipated. He got a tad tetchy when he was in pain and didn't have something to hit.

"Did Narcissa not want to go on the trip?" Hermione asked with sympathy. She had seen what happened when Narcissa argued with Draco and it wasn't pretty, especially when he was trying to tell her that he knew what was best for her. For such a delicate-looking woman, Narcissa Malfoy was certainly an imposing force when she wanted to be.

"No, she was very excited, started packing while I was still there." He scowled at the thought of what really had him in a foul mood – besides the migraine that was threatening to split his head in half, of course.

_It wasn't as horrible as he thought it would be, having Potter rifling around in his head. Draco had expected some sort of righteous residue to linger in his thoughts everywhere Potter had travelled, but that wasn't the case. Potter was more skilled than Draco had originally been willing to give him credit for. Draco was dangerously close to impressed._

"_Thanks," echoed in his head, showing that Potter was listening to his surface thoughts as he shuffled around Draco's mind._

"_Let's not prolong this ordeal," Draco answered in the same way, "Focus on what you're supposed to be doing."_

_He watched as Potter obeyed and went back to flipping through Draco's memories from when he was first assigned to be partners with Granger. Because Potter was in his mind, Draco felt his surprise at the way Draco had saved his partner from a vampire in the hospital on their first day together. If he believed that Draco would watch as a vampire killed someone who was partially his responsibility, then Potter had severely underestimated him._

_From there, Potter moved on to watch a more recent memory. In a moment of gentleness, Draco smoothed Hermione's mass of hair away from her face as she slept. Merlin, it was uncomfortable to have someone else in his head._

"_In my defense she was going to suffocate in her sleep and I was going to be blamed for it," Draco told Potter, feeling the other man's disbelief even as he told him._

_Not wanting Potter to think further on the tender moment, Draco thrust forward a memory of himself, standing in the dining room and staring up at the light fixture with a devious smirk on his face. An anxious House Elf waited beside him and listened as Draco told it that none of the elves were to remove the bra that hung there. He wanted to see how long it would take for Granger to notice. He wanted to be there to see her horror and then kiss it away again._

"_You expect me to believe that discovering this is why lunch went so wrong?" Potter demanded._

"_It's the truth."_

_Before Draco could stop him, Potter reached the next memory, getting a good look at Granger as she twirled, smiling at him over her shoulder, modelling the edible knickers that Eros had given them. The thought came attached with every feeling Draco felt for the woman, something he'd been careful to strip from the earlier ones._

_With a violent shove, Draco pushed Potter from his mind, both of them jolting in pain when their connection was severed and they found themselves back in Potter's office, staring at each other over the desk. Draco was furious._

"_I told you to only look at what was needed," Draco snarled, trying to catch his breath. His only consolation as he panted unattractively was that Potter wasn't any better off._

"_You really love her, don't you?" It wasn't really a question; Potter only now seemed to be absorbing something that he should have known for a while now. Hermione Granger wasn't the type to just sleep around without feelings involved, especially when it was with her partner, someone very important in her life._

_Draco ignored the question. "Are you done suspecting that I'm doing her harm?"_

"_Yes," Potter said grudgingly. "But I'm still going to get to the bottom of what happened to Kate."_

_Tempted to tell him that he was welcome to try but would never find answers that the gods didn't want found, Draco just smirked. "I wouldn't expect the nosy bastard who spent most of sixth year stalking me to suddenly change."_

"Draco, is your head okay?" Hermione asked, worried that he hadn't answered her for a while. He was just scowling moodily at the ground as he rubbed his temples. The talk with his mother after leaving Potter's office had gone remarkably well, which was a good thing because Draco had zero patience at the moment. It was hard to be patient when his brain felt like it was trying to cut its way out of his head.

"I'll be fine." For self-preservation reasons, Draco didn't want to tell her about his little visit to Potter. While it would gain him points for extending the effort, he would be risking Granger finding out that Draco had inadvertently shown her long-time friend an image of her half naked in a completely private moment involving edible knickers. She would be mortified and then furious, probably with both Draco and Potter.

"Good, then you'll be fine to read this file," Hermione said, thrusting said file against his chest. He'd had time to grab his leather duster and weapons while he'd been home, so Draco was ready to go and his hands were free to hold the bloody file while Granger finished her packing.

Grimacing, he opened the file and slowly started to read. Only one sentence in, he scowled up at her. "We're going to Greece? I don't like it there."

"If you'd read past the first sentence, you'd see it's Athens to be specific." Her statement earned a grunted complaint and a deeper scowl from her partner.

Hermione rolled her eyes. Draco had a thing against travelling to places that were dense with tourists and crowds of Muggles. He also hated going places with lots of sun, and chances were, it was going to be sunny there.

At least there wasn't going to be too much nature. Draco hated nature if he wasn't allowed to kill it.

"Wear a hat or something," Hermione snapped at him.

* * *

"A pet store?" Draco demanded, staring disbelievingly at what appeared to be the facade of a perfectly average pet store in Athens.

Hermione pushed open the door. "I'm beginning to suspect that you didn't finish the file you were supposed to be reading."

He snorted, brushing her aside to enter the store first. Hermione wasn't sure if he was going first in case of an ambush, or he was just that eager to get away from the crowds and the sun. Either way, she was annoyed with him.

The pet shop looked like any she could walk into in Muggle London save for the obvious language difference. There were cages with budgies and small finches along one wall, fish tanks along another, and rodents along the remaining wall. It seemed that there weren't any larger animals for sale here.

Hermione walked confidently up to the counter where a woman sat idly flipping through a catalogue of what appeared to be packing materials. After clearing her throat to get the woman to look up, Hermione flashed her Ministry credentials.

"I'm here because we have reason to believe that this store is ground zero for a disease that is rapidly becoming an epidemic in animals. Do you mind if my partner and I take a look around?"

Had the woman been a Muggle, Hermione knew that she would have seen the papers claiming that Hermione was from Britain's Ministry of Magic as a local police badge. It was best that Hermione assume she was a Muggle until proven otherwise.

"You're here about the monsters?" The woman didn't wait for a response. She closed what definitely was a packing materials catalogue, walked to the back of the store, and pulled the front pane of glass on the largest fish tank. It opened just like a door, leaving a wall of water and fish held up with only magic. "Follow me to the back," she said, walking through the water without a moment's hesitation.

"What kind of idiot makes a doorway that necessitates holding your breath?" Draco muttered irritably. Despite his complaints, he obediently followed Hermione through the water. They did have to hold their breaths, but it was only for a second and then they were on the other side of the wall of water, completely dry.

The space on this side of the tank was very different form the store on the other side. This was a dark cavern lit by torches that flickered, casting twisting images on the wall that made it look like their own shadows were out to get them. The walls were smooth, but not in a polished way. It was as if something had worn them down until all of the little ridges and bumps had been evened out.

"This is as far as I go," the girl said. She pointed off towards a darker shadow on the far side of the room. "Just go down there. It's a straight tunnel – deep, but there are no other passages so you won't get lost. Your main concern is being eaten." Job finished, the girl went back to man the counter in the store. She wouldn't want to miss a sale on packing beans in that catalogue of hers.

Draco muttered a string of curses under his breath and handed Hermione a torch from the wall.

She led the way, rolling her eyes at her partner. "You complain when it's sunny, when it's dark. You hate it when it's too hot or cold, or when there's swamp water and mud. Is there any place our job takes us that _won't _have you complaining?"

"It would be grand if the creatures could just come right to the office."

Her voice lowered as the advanced down the steep, slippery steps of the tunnel. Any sound echoed horribly, and she didn't want to announce their presence to what was waiting for them below. "You wouldn't be able to behead things in the office, it's too messy. You'd just sit and watch me fill out paperwork all day, growing fat."

He scoffed at the mere idea of him getting fat, but didn't continue their conversation. Hermione suspected his silence was because she was right.

They continued on down the stairs for what felt like forever. Hermione's torch was more than half burnt before the finally reached the end of the steps. She wasn't one to fear enclosed spaces, but even she was starting to feel a little claustrophobic knowing how deep underground she had to be after so many steps.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, the yawning darkness that stretched beyond the little circle of her flame wasn't much comfort. Judging by the echoes of dripping water in the distance, the cavern was a pretty large one.

A scuffling sound that wasn't just an echo from Hermione and Draco's movements bounced off the walls and both of them froze.

Draco glanced at Hermione, but she was already moving to extinguish the torch, not needing his hint. Their light announced their presence to anything that may be out there in the darkness and they didn't need it making targets of them.

Without the torch, the darkness was complete, blanketing them entirely. If whatever was out there in the cave could see well enough in the dark, Hermione and Draco were still at a major disadvantage. Luckily, Ministry training and common sense provided a solution to this problem.

In perfect synch, Hermione and Draco made a whip motion with their wands, wordlessly casting _Lumos Maxima_ and launching twin balls of light towards the roof of the cavern where they hovered, illuminating a good portion of the cavern.

Hermione, having read the file, was somewhat prepared for the sight that met her eyes, but Draco was another story. His mouth hung open for a full ten seconds before he remembered that he might need to defend himself. The displeased glare of his partner helped him remember that he was being unprofessional.

An angry hiss spread across the cave with the appearance of the magical illumination.

The cave was full of what appeared at first glance to be snakes. On closer inspection, it became clear that each pile of coils contained a woman lounging in a pile of scaly green snakeskin. Hermione knew from her reading that these apparently normal human women were actually attached to those coils. They were half snake, the scales ending just below their belly buttons on the front and trailing up their spines on the back. The other half was human woman – well endowed human woman, as was made apparent by their complete lack of clothing.

"Granger, were they in the file?" Draco whispered.

Hermione ignored him and approached the creatures. "My name is Hermione Granger and I'm here on behalf of the Ministry of Magic. I understand that this is where the illness that has been felling magical creatures at an alarming rate began."

Hermione knew that she was being irrational, but she couldn't suppress the stab of anger that went through her when she saw Draco looking at those women. "Stop undressing them with your eyes," she snapped.

Surprised at the vehemence and anger in her tone, Draco looked away from assessing the monsters to see how much of a threat they posed and raised his eyebrows at his partner. "They're _naked, _Granger. The undressing has been done for me."

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, because Hermione had to take a few deep breaths to suppress the urge to slap him. There was something about the cave that made her much more volatile than usual, or maybe she was just suffering from PMS. Either way, Draco could have had a little more tact.

One of the creatures, the one with the largest pile of coils, untangled herself and undulated her way over to Hermione and Draco. Her tail pushed her up well above Draco and Hermione's heads, so it looked like she may be poised to strike. She lowered herself when she reached them, but she was still taller than Draco.

"Mortals," the snake woman hissed, "Your meddling will only lead to your death."

Draco tilted his head to the side, weighing the chance he'd get to hit things against the potential danger. He was willing to risk the danger if he got to behead something, but then he remembered that if they weren't working, there would be nothing keeping him and Granger from spending the rest of the day in bed – besides her obvious anger at him, but he was sure that he could convince her to forgive him. It was a tough decision, but one with an obvious answer.

"You heard the scaly lady, Granger. It's futile to meddle and all that shite."

Unlike her partner, Hermione was less willing to give up on a cause. She grabbed his arm to stop him from going back up the stairs and held on to make sure he stayed.

"I appreciate the concern," Hermione said, ignoring Draco's tugged attempts to get her to stop holding him there and addressing the snake woman, "But we're required to investigate, even if the investigation itself is an exercise in futility. So if you could just tell us what happened?"

"_He_ happened. He's hated creatures of darkness since the beginning of our existence. It was him who killed our mother and now he's taking out his petty anger on the rest of us."

"Great, they know the culprit," Draco said, wrenching his arm out of his partner's grasp. "Who was it?"

The snake woman hissed, the sound taken up by every other snake woman in the cavern. Their combined hisses echoed eerily off of the walls, making the space seem as if it was filled with far more snake women than it actually contained. "We dare not speak his name."

"Of course not," Draco muttered bitterly, earning himself an irritated slap in the chest from his partner.

"Is there anything you _can _tell us?" Hermione asked. "A hint, something? We just want to find out why this plague started so we can stop it from killing any more innocent creatures."

According to Hermione's file, the plague had started right here in this cave and killed ninety percent of the Daughters of Echidna. The remaining ten or so snake women were all that had survived the brutal illness. Judging by the way some of these remaining creatures were looking a little listless, she was concerned that some of them may not be out of the woods yet.

"My sisters are sick and need tending to. There is nothing I can do for you besides warn you that interfering further will only lead to your death."

Hermione pulled out a notepad from a pocket and poised a self-inking quill over the paper. She was vulnerable because she'd been forced to put away her wand, but Draco had stopped trying to escape and was watching her back.

"Can you at least tell us some of the symptoms of the curse? Any information at all could help us."

The woman's eyes narrowed. "My formerly healthy sisters were alive and well and then they were dead. If you insist on meddling, do it far from us. Out numbers are depleted enough as it is, I don't want the rest of us to die because you don't know when to stop asking questions. Now leave."

Not wanting to anger the already ill snake women, Hermione accepted the dismissal and turned to leave. Draco tried to do the same, but found that he was unable to do so.

"Granger," Draco said, looking down at his leg. His expression was halfway between horror and dread. "There's a small child attached to my leg."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**A/N: Hello readers! I still have some reviews to answer, but I wanted to post this now. So don't worry.**

**If it was confusing to anyone, the snake women were human from the waist up and giant snake from there down. Like creepy land mermaids.**

**As always, thanks to all the wonderful people who take the time to review and to irianaceleste for betaing.**

**Also, HAPPY (early) CANADA DAY!**

**~Frosty**

Hermione followed his gaze and found that he'd been telling the truth, but the child wasn't all that small. The girl looked to be at least eight or nine. It was the complete terror in her big, pleading eyes made her appear younger.

Not liking being used as a jungle gym or some sort of giant teddy bear, Draco shook his leg, trying to dislodge the girl's dirty little hands. She clung tightly, making little distressed whimpers as she refused to release him.

When the leg shaking failed, he leaned down and tried to pry her off using his hands like a spatula. The child would be much happier with Granger to comfort her, and he would be much happier when there was no longer a sticky little limpet stuck to his pants.

"Draco!" Hermione admonished. "She's a little girl and she's scared out of her mind right now. Stop trying to scrape her off of you."

Hermione, sensing that it was only a matter of time before Draco had the poor girl in tears, gently untangled the child's small fingers from Draco's trouser leg. She lifted the little girl into her arms, glad that the poor thing wasn't resisting. As the girl buried her head against her neck and started shaking, Hermione rocked a little and made quiet hushing sounds to try and calm her a little.

To compensate for the fact that both of Hermione's arms were busy, Draco stepped forward slightly in case he needed to defend the both of them.

"That was left here. A snack for later," the snake woman hissed. Her words drew a small, terrified squeak from the child as she pressed herself even closer against Hermione.

"I'm afraid that we can't leave her here," Hermione said firmly. "We can't just knowingly abandon a child when we knew that she's going to be eaten."

"He wants her dead. We will be punished if she doesn't die."

The snake woman shifted as if she was going to attack and Draco tensed slightly, ready for it, but one of the creatures from further back in the cave moaned feebly and started to have what looked like a seizure, distracting her. She turned around and seemed torn for a moment, wanting to aid her sister but needed to keep Hermione and Draco from fleeing with their little snack.

"Run," Hermione whispered, turning around and following her own suggestion. Draco was right behind her. He managed to cast a feather-light charm on the child while he covered their backs.

"He will find you!" the snake woman yelled after them.

* * *

By the time they got back to the office, the little girl's sobs had stopped and she had fallen into an exhausted slumber against Hermione's shoulder. Hermione transfigured the extra visitor's chair into a small bed and tucked the girl into the softness of the blankets after casting a quick cleansing charm to make sure that the child was at least a little bit less dirty.

"Someone wants her dead," Hermione said in a whisper. She stroked a gentle hand over the child's matted hair when the girl whimpered in her sleep. The touch seemed to clam her a little and she settled down into a restful sleep once more.

Draco scowled, knowing exactly what his partner was thinking. "We can take care of her just fine without an Auror presence."

"You know that's not procedure." Hermione was already halfway to the door.

"You're going to leave me here with her?" There was a hint of panic in Draco's voice that he would never admit to, but Hermione heard it loud and clear. It made her smile.

"Draco, she's a child. She's not going to hurt you. Offer her the biscuits in my desk and some water if she wakes up before I get back. She's probably starving." When he still seemed about to object, Hermione added, "She's exhausted and is going to be asleep for a long time. She won't wake up. You'll be fine."

Draco looked terrified, which was why Hermione wore an amused little smile as she went to talk to the Auror department. They needed to find an Auror to keep the kid safe while she and Draco worked on the case.

* * *

Draco spent a while trying to pretend the child wasn't there. He rifled through Granger's desk in search of something to entertain him. Unfortunately, he had done this so many times over the many years of their partnership that everything of even the remotest interest had already been picked over and removed. Granger always got rid of the fun things because she said he was too distracting while he played with them. There weren't even any paperclips left!

Sitting back in his chair, Draco resigned himself to a long, uncomfortable wait. He knew the Auror department could be a little slow when they were assigning Aurors to watch over people. Granger being Granger was going to speed up that process a little, but he was still left supervising a child for entirely too long. Granger would never forgive him if he somehow broke the kid before she came back.

The girl was curled into a small, protective ball. Draco couldn't imagine how horrible it was for her in the cavern of the snake woman. She was lucky that they had all been ill, or they probably would have gotten around to eating her sooner.

"Mommy?" the girl whimpered, suddenly sitting bolt upright and staring at Draco with wide, watery eyes that he had no idea how to handle.

"I'm not your mother, go back to sleep," he said with more gruffness than he had intended. It took a lot for Draco to do gentle, and he wasn't good at it whenever he tried. There was just too much anger and stiffness in him for him to ever be nurturing.

Her lower lip trembled and the moisture accumulating in her eyes threatened to overflow.

Granger would be pissed if the kid was hysterical when she returned. "What do you need?" He managed – just barely – to keep the frustration from his voice.

Wordlessly, the girl held up her arms, imploring with those large blue eyes of hers. Her lower lip trembled pathetically.

"No." He stood and would have backed away if the relatively small office had the room for it. "I'll go get you candy and some biscuits, something to drink. Just don't make me hug you." Draco's only consolation was that Potter or someone else annoying wasn't there to witness his moment of defeat at the hands of a small child. Even Draco himself knew that it was only a matter of time before he caved and did as those pleading eyes begged.

After a remarkably short time considering his pride and stubbornness, Draco sighed, crossed the room and lifted the small girl into his arms. She immediately wrapped her arms around his neck in a death grip and her legs around his waist, clinging tightly. Her grip was so strong that Draco could probably let go of her and she'd stay attached to him under her own power. There was something inhumanly strong about this child's clinging ability.

He hesitantly rocked as he'd seen Granger do, patting the child's back. Unsurprisingly, the girl seemed to like it better when Granger did it. She was better at this type of thing.

When Hermione entered the room a while later with a surly looking Auror in tow, she found Draco leaning over the transfigured bed and trying to scrape the sleeping child off himself. It seemed that even in her sleep she had quite the grip and wasn't willing to release the blond.

"Help me," Draco hissed at his partner when she seemed content to only stand in the doorway and attempt to smother her amusement at his distress. What she didn't show was the little jump she felt in her stomach at the sight of him with a child. She wasn't anywhere near ready to discuss it, and they were always careful to use magical protection, but the thought of one day having children with Draco was something that she found herself contemplating.

The Auror behind Hermione cleared his throat, obviously not appreciating the delay. His interruption spurred Hermione into action. She moved over to her partner and helped him remove the child's arms from around his neck. With her assistance, it only took them seconds to have the girl tucked back into the bed.

"I'm not a nanny," the Auror snapped, obviously sensing that Draco was going to want to go about his work and foist the child off on someone else.

Hermione stepped in before Draco could say something that that would lead to blows. The confrontational way the Auror held himself even when he wasn't being threatened in the least led her to believe that Draco was going to need to be on his best behaviour if they were going to avoid a fight.

"Auror Smith, we don't think that you're here to babysit her," Hermione soothed. "We understand that your duties are confined to protection only."

While Hermione respected that taking care of the child wasn't in his job description, it wouldn't kill the man to help on occasion. After all, taking care of randomly found children wasn't in Hermione and Draco's job descriptions and Hermione fully intended on doing just that – while forcing Draco to do the same, of course.

"Granger, why are you humouring this wanker?" Of course Draco didn't care that Auror Smith was just waiting for something to fight about.

Quickly, Hermione stepped between them before a fight could start. She had a feeling that she was going to have to repeat this move frequently while they worked with Auror Smith. Hermione could already tell that working with Auror Smith was going to be exhausting.

* * *

Having suspected that perhaps a traditional interrogation room would be traumatic for the child, Hermione had chosen to question her in the office once she was done with her nap. The little girl, after informing Hermione that her name was Cassy, insisted that she sit in Draco's lap or she wasn't going to answer any questions. Draco had not been pleased but had caved under the combined looks of Hermione and Cassy.

"So, Cassy, do you remember how you came to be in the cave with the snake women?" Hermione asked. She was behind her desk with Draco and Cassy in Draco's usual chair. Auror Smith was standing by the door, as far as he could get from Draco in the confines of Hermione's office. The two were much too alike to have even the slightest chance of ever getting along.

Cassy nodded and seemed to try and speak, but the words wouldn't come out of her mouth. It was like she was selectively silenced.

"Speak up, kid," Draco ordered not unkindly.

She tried, Hermione could see her trying her best, but Cassy eventually fell against Draco's chest with a sad, apologetic look on her face. "I can't."

"What about your parents, is there anything you can say about them? Even the smallest detail could help."

It was clear from her face that Cassy really wanted to tell them something, but her lips just wouldn't form the words she wanted to say.

The same thing happened every time Hermione or anyone else in the room tried to ask Cassy _anything _that would be able to help them with the case. Cassy couldn't tell them anything more than her name, and even that Hermione suspected was a nickname.

"Is there anything you're able to tell us?" Hermione finally asked. If there wasn't, she and Draco were going to have to go back to the cavern of snake women, something she didn't want to do. The Daughters of Echidna were the last of their kind and it was illegal to kill them, though it wasn't really illegal for the Daughters of Echidna to kill meddling Ministry employees who stole their meal. She and Draco would be putting themselves in danger for what Hermione was almost sure would turn out to be a dead end.

Cassy struggled to give them an answer, stopping to rest for brief moments to regain her strength between attempts. She was clearly exhausted and this was only further depleting her energy. Finally, after several minutes, she was finally able to get something past her lips, "He was looking for an octopus. One that sees the future."

Hermione and Draco exchanged a look, both thinking the same thing: it was looking more and more like the gods were involved in whatever mess they'd stumbled across. Auror Smith, meanwhile, snorted in disbelief and shook his head. He clearly thought that Cassy was telling lies.

It was probably safest that he stayed in the dark.

"Do you think we should attempt Legilimens on her?" Draco asked quietly once Cassy was once more sleeping on the cot in Hermione's office. "Maybe she's just blocked from vocally telling us."

Hermione shook her head. "If this is the work of a god like we suspect, then whoever it was wouldn't have been so careless as to block only her voice. I doubt we'd be able to get anything from her and using such an invasive spell on a traumatised child would be wrong."

"Then I guess we're hunting for a divining octopus." He didn't sound impress.

* * *

Later, when Hermione and Draco had taken Cassy and Auror Smith to a safe house in the middle of Muggle London, they finally had a moment alone to discuss the octopus.

"She's a child. It's probably a load of bollocks," Draco said, not for the first time.

Hermione sighed and rubbed a hand over her aching forehead. Only one day back at work and she was exhausted and already had a headache.

"I know that, Draco, but at the moment, it's the only lead we have and it needs to be followed."

They were lucky enough to have been put into a safe house with three bedrooms. Cassy got one, Auror Smith another, and Hermione and Draco took the remaining room. This was where they were as they discussed the octopus.

"How do we even go about finding a single octopus in all the oceans?" he asked.

Draco lounged on the bed and watched Hermione stare moodily at a detailed map of the world that she'd spread across most of the bed and Draco's legs.

"Don't be so negative, Draco. I'm sure there's something _somewhere _about an octopus that sees the future. That isn't something normal, even in the magical world."

There was some little memory vying for attention in the back of Hermione's mind, but she couldn't seem to grasp it. She had a feeling that this wasn't the first time she'd heard mention of an octopus that told the future, but she just couldn't put her finger on where in the world she'd heard about it.

"Granger, just come to bed. You look like you're going to fall over."

When she didn't obey him, Draco shoved the map off of the bed and grabbed his partner. Ignoring her indignant shriek, he pulled her down beside him and smirked at her as she struggled in his arms.

"Calm down and accept that you're not going to magically solve anything before bed tonight," Draco said against her neck. She stilled as the little hairs on the back of her neck rose in response. Draco was behind her, but she could tell that he was smirking at the effect he was having on her.

Since she was so tired, it took very little convincing for Draco to get her under the covers and resting with her eyes closed.

"Draco?" she asked as soon as he turned out the lights.

His response was an irritated grunt.

"I didn't want to say something in front of Auror Smith, but I ran into Harry while I was in the Auror department. He told me what you did."

Draco scowled. "I don't want to talk about it." His eyes turned contemplative. "Unless you want to reward me sexually, that may just erase the horrors of having Potter in my head."

"I'm not rewarding you at all. You were only correcting a problem that arose from your own stupid prank."

It seemed that he was going to have to be more persuasive if he wanted to get his reward. Draco dug his way through her mass of hair, burrowing until his lips could come into contact with that sensitive spot behind her ear. He was rewarded when she shivered against him once more.

From there, all it took was slyly slipping a hand down the front of her skirt and a little persuasive fondling before Hermione sighed and let him roll her onto her back and place himself over top of her.

"Luna!" Hermione said with a gasp, shoving Draco off of her.

"Granger, it's offensive enough that you called out someone else's name, but it's even more offensive when the name belongs to a woman. Unless you're implying that you'd like to bring another woman into bed with us, in which case I'm sure I'll get over it eventually."

Hermione whacked him, otherwise ignoring his comments. She would have reacted more strongly if she thought for a second that he was serious, but he was just trying to get a rise out of her and she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.

"Luna is the one I heard talking about an octopus that could divine the future. She said she met one in her travels, but I dismissed it as her usual oddness."

"I write off everything she says as usual oddness."

Hermione whacked him again. "You write off almost everything everyone says to you."

"Not you, I listen to you most of time. I then decide to disregard half of what you say, but I listen to it."

Somehow, Hermione didn't find this as touching as Draco seemed to think she should.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**A/N: Hello readers! Okay, so I'm still behind in the reviews, sorry! Today is a beach day, so if I have time today, it won't be until later. But a new chapter! That's better, right?**

**As always, thanks to everyone who reviewed and to irianaceleste for betaing.**

**~Frosty**

Draco was headed for bed, his hair still wet from his shower, when he paused by the window. It was dark outside and the shapes blended well, but there was definitely something out there. He squinted until the formless blots took shape and he realized what it was he was seeing.

"Granger, is this normal strangeness or divine strangeness?" He stepped to the side so she had room to see around him.

Hermione had been lounging in the bed, half asleep as she waited for Draco to finish in the shower. When she saw what Draco had, her drooping eyelids opened wide. "There has to be at least a hundred crows out there."

As the pair watched, Auror Smith came out the back door, yelled something at the crows, and then chased them away by shooting a few warning spells at them. He stood there on the lawn for a while after the crows had disappeared, making sure that they weren't going to return.

"Do Aurors normally defend against gatherings of wildlife?" Draco asked. "I thought that was our job."

As if he had heard, Auror Smith turned around and looked up at them silhouetted in the window. There was only a bedside lamp on behind them, so their faces were probably in shadow to the Auror. Still, it would be obvious to him that they'd just witnessed him send away the crows.

Hermione wasn't sure what she had expected Auror Smith to do, maybe skulk away like he had been caught doing something wrong. Instead, he just nodded to them and then retreated back inside the safe house.

"There's something strange going on," she murmured. "I'm not sure yet if this strangeness rests with Auror Smith, the crows, or both of them, but I know something isn't normal."

No longer interested now that there was nothing out of the ordinary outside the window, Draco just shrugged. "You mean besides the gods who are apparently determined to watch us suffer?"

He didn't wait for her to answer, not wanting to talk about the apparent hopelessness of their current situation. Hermione, on the other hand, was looking out the window still with her face scrunched up in thought.

While she was distracted, Draco scooped her up and tossed her onto the bed.

"You're not going to solve anything tonight, Granger. Stop thinking about it."

She huffed at him, pretending to be annoyed that he'd thrown her around like she was a sack of potatoes. "I can't just turn off my brain, Draco."

"I beg to differ." He crawled on top of her, leaning enough of his weight on her that she was trapped beneath him, but not so much that she was squished. "I think I can find something to distract you."

His words were right against her lips, touching hers just enough to tickle her. Involuntarily, she closed her eyes even as some part of her brain objected to just forfeiting her side of the argument. Then he kissed her and she forgot what the argument was.

Draco was good like that; he distracted her when her obsessive thinking and planning threatened to cause her unnecessary stress. When he wasn't causing it himself, Draco was good for her stress levels in general. He took so few things seriously and when something bothered him, he confronted it and then dismissed it as unimportant. She'd always been aware of these traits in her partner, but it was only recently that she had really started to properly appreciate them.

"Still thinking?" he asked a while later, his voice unbearably smug.

No, no she wasn't. Hermione didn't even have it in her to deflate his ego. In this case, he had more than earned the right to smugness.

"You haven't made me forget that we're going to see Luna tomorrow, if that's what you were trying to do."

Draco swore, but something occurred to him and his scowl turned to a smile. "I'll just have to try again, then."

* * *

"Auror Smith is going to be angry when he finds that we've left him alone with Cassy," Hermione fretted.

Draco rolled his eyes. This wasn't the first time she'd said something along those lines and he was getting awfully tired of hearing about it. "It's his bloody job to keep her safe. It won't kill him to make sure she eats something while he's at it."

It had been a battle that morning for Hermione to leave the poor child alone with the surly Auror, especially after the strange scene they had witnessed the previous night. In the end, Draco had just rolled his eyes and dragged her from the safe house while reminding her that Cassy was never going to be safe if they didn't find out who it was that wanted her dead.

Hermione sighed and stopped her complaints, knowing they were driving Draco up the wall. The last thing she needed was Draco on edge when they went to visit Luna. It would just make him more likely to say something terribly insulting.

Cassy would be fine. If worse came to worst, Cassy was old enough to scavenge something edible from the kitchen in the safe house on her own. The only thing Auror Smith needed to do was make sure that no one invaded the house.

She glanced at her partner to judge his mood. His face was screwed up in distaste as they approached Luna's house. He was annoyed that they had to be there, but not in such a bad mood that he would set out to sabotage the visit entirely.

Luna still lived in the house that had been her home since she was a child. After the war, it had been repaired and now looked as good as new, but still just as odd as ever.

"She's not that bad," Hermione scolded as she knocked on the door.

Draco's attention was focused on a shrubbery beside the door that appeared to be emitting a pink smoke. "Not that bad my arse," he muttered.

Very faintly, they heard someone in the house invite them in, so they opened the door and stepped inside.

Immediately, Hermione and Draco lost their footing, but instead of falling they just floated in place. From the way objects and furniture were floating around the room, it was safe to assume that gravity wasn't in effect inside Luna's house.

"Luna?" Hermione called, trying to hold her robes around her. She was thankful that she had worn jeans that day. Keeping a skirt down would have been really annoying.

"I'm in the kitchen."

Using the walls to propel them through the house, Hermione and Draco found themselves faced with the odd scene of watching someone attempt to cook without gravity. As far as they could tell, Luna had used a sticking spell and magical fire to try and heat an egg that she had kept against the pan by batting at it with a spatula. It looked like a very awkward way to cook.

"Welcome, Hermione and Draco," Luna said with a dreamy smile. "I'd offer you a seat, but it wouldn't do you any good. I seem to be having some difficulty with gravity at the moment."

Draco's hair was floating around his head in a halo that was completely at odds with his scowl. "She's lost the plot," he muttered low enough that only Hermione could hear. She would have hit him, but she kind of agreed. Gravity wasn't something that one could just switch on and off on a whim, and it certainly wasn't something that could be lost.

"Luna," Hermione said, knowing that she needed to get Draco out of there before his rude comments got loud enough for Luna to hear. "I remembered you talking about an octopus that could tell the future a while back and was wondering if you knew where I could find it."

As the blonde woman's attention strayed, her egg drifted away. Hermione used her wand to direct it back to the pan while Luna was lost in thought. It wasn't polite to let the eggs escape just because they had a question for her.

"I remember that octopus," Luna said thoughtfully. "It told me that I wasn't going to find the striped squirrel badger I was searching for."

Draco made eye contact with Hermione and mouthed "squirrel badger" disbelievingly. At least he hadn't said something outright rude.

"I think I still have the mapped locations somewhere," Luna continued, oblivious to Draco's disbelief. She was probably used to people looking at her like she was crazy anyway. That said, Luna went back to cooking her egg as if she hadn't even spoken. It seemed as if she had forgotten that there were other people in the room.

"Can we have the map?" Draco asked impatiently.

Luna glanced over her shoulder at him, tilting her head to the side much a like a bird. Without warning, she abandoned her breakfast and floated out of the room, apparently not concerned about starting a fire or anything.

Fire couldn't burn in zero gravity and Luna had been using magical fire besides, but Hermione still extinguished it before she followed the dreamy woman. The egg however, she allowed to float away. Luna could deal with that later.

They caught up to Luna just as she opened a door on the second floor. Several books and some loose paper floated out of the room. It appeared to be a library. Since everything was floating, there was no discernible order to all of the books and papers, something that made Hermione cringe internally and Draco shoot her a knowing look.

Luna had no trouble wading through the chaos, probably because her mind was in such chaos all the time so she was used to wading through disorder. She grabbed a packet of papers that were floating over by the window trailing a sky blue ribbon behind it.

Maybe Luna had some sort of colour coding system? Hermione's poor brain was desperately trying to find some order, but even she couldn't manage it. Her fingers practically twitched with the desire to try though. This was no way to keep a library.

Draco was smirking at her. She didn't even need to look; she could feel it. The git knew what was going on in her head and he was amused by her discomfort.

"Here it is," Luna said happily, passing Hermione the packet. "I marked the place I met with the octopus."

Not wanting to sow any more disorder in the already chaotic room, Hermione was careful not to bump anything as she unfolded the map.

"Is the glittery ladybug sticker the place you marked?" Hermione had scanned the map and there weren't any other markings, but she didn't see what glittery ladybugs had to do with an octopus that could see the future. She supposed that it made as much sense as everything else in Luna's universe did.

"Of course," Luna said.

Hermione nodded, needing to get out of the strange house. She liked Luna well enough, but had never had much of a tolerance for Luna's strangeness. There was no logic to anything she did, and as someone who thrived on logic, Hermione struggled to deal with Luna. It always put her on edge to spend too much time with the blonde woman.

When she glanced over her shoulder, she saw that Draco was already well on his way out of the house. He had even less tolerance for Luna than Hermione did, and he was much more willing to openly complain about it.

"Thanks, Luna," Hermione said quickly, following after her partner. "Good luck with your... gravity."

* * *

Hermione stood looking out at the water and trying to work out the best plan of action. She was going in without much information and didn't like that fact. Going into a potentially dangerous situation blind was just asking for trouble.

"If you don't make a decision soon, I'm going to shove you into the water and let you work it out from there," Draco snapped from behind her. He hadn't been pleased when he'd found out that the octopus was just off of the coast of Antarctica.

Antarctica! Hermione had to assume that this magical octopus had something going for it that its less magical brethren did not because Antarctica didn't have many non-magical octopuses living there. On the bright side, this would make the magical one that much more obvious if they found it.

They were both enshrouded in parkas and heavy duty warming spells, but it was still very cold. The warming spells were draining on their energy in such cold temperatures, so it was a race against time to find the octopus before their extensive use of energy completely exhausted them.

"Just let me think for a moment," Hermione said irritably. She was weighing and comparing various spells and approaches for searching around in very cold water, especially for something that might not even exist. Even if Luna's map was accurate – and Hermione wasn't sure about the accuracy of the sparkly ladybug sticker – it was entirely possible that the octopus had moved since she'd seen it.

She listened to snow crunching and Draco's muttered complaints as he did as she asked and wandered off to entertain himself. Hermione would be more worried that he would get into trouble if he'd had his sword with him – they'd decided that it would be best for the both of them if they didn't have to drag heavy swords around underwater when they needed to conserve energy. Without his sword, Draco wouldn't be able to behead a penguin. He was still a danger with magic, but Draco was more likely to last out physically than magically if offended.

Hermione sighed, finally coming to a decision. They were going to cast bubble head charms and pour most of their energy into keeping their body temperatures up.

Looking over her shoulder, Hermione was doubly glad that Draco didn't have his sword. He was glaring distrustfully at a group of penguins.

"Draco, penguins are not ducks, you have no reason to hate them. Now leave the nice birds alone and come over here."

The penguin squawked obnoxiously just as Draco was about to turn back to his partner. Of course, the blond wasn't going to let an offence like that go unpunished. He was reaching for his wand when Hermione intervened.

"Draco Malfoy, don't even _think _about hexing that penguin."

He shuddered before turning to look at his partner with dawning horror. "I should be angry that you're nagging me, but I'm aroused by your bossy tone. That's quite disturbing. Even using my full name to scold me like my mother doesn't seem to put a damper on my libido."

Hermione tried not to blush as he advanced towards her, looking like a predator about to pounce on an innocent herbivore. She put her hands up and warned him off. For the first time, she was thankful for the cold; it made the naughty things his eyes promised too difficult. They didn't have time for trysts and she knew that if he touched her, she wasn't going to be able to say no to him.

Not pleased with his new discovery and being denied a kiss, Draco glowered at anything and everything. At least he wasn't killing penguins.

She explained her plan to Draco, who nodded his approval. He was perfectly capable of coming up with plans of his own or pointing out flaws in Hermione's, he just preferred that she do the planning. It was how they worked best. Draco was content to let her lead and behead the things she told him to, while Hermione got to indulge her control freak side and make the plans.

Without further delay, they both jumped into the frigid ocean.

Even with extensive warming charms, it was still a bit of a shock to the system to be submerged in such cold water. Hermione took a moment to allow her body to stop its shuddering and for her toes to uncurl before she started off in the approximate direction that the map had indicated the octopus would be.

Since they were conserving their energy, Hermione and Draco hadn't bothered casting the spells that would allow them to communicate underwater. Still, after forty-five minutes of aimlessly searching open water for some sign of an octopus, Hermione could clearly read what Draco was thinking. He was cursing the day he'd met Luna and probably his decision to work at all instead of just living off of his investments and inheritance.

She felt heavy and slow, which was a sign that it was almost time to give up their search. Despite the warming spells, the cold and exhaustion were starting to get to her.

Hermione was getting ready to signal to Draco that she was ready to give up – something he had been ready to do as soon as he'd realized they were going to Antarctica – when she noticed a faint glow out of the corner of her eye.

They were passing a small iceberg that on a second glance appeared to have a cave at its center. The movement had been inside the strange cave.

Hermione touched Draco's arm to get his attention and then gestured over to the cave. He nodded his understanding and they both swam over to investigate, their wands ready.

When they entered the cave and found a glowing octopus, Draco's face clearly said that he couldn't believe the coincidence. Hermione had to agree. It was strange that they'd found the proverbial needle in a haystack that covered most of the planet.

The octopus was the size of a watermelon with long, delicate tentacles undulating around it. There were blue spots colouring its brown skin and an alien intelligence in its strange eyes. All in all, it was a strange looking creature.

"_I wasn't going to appear to you," _a voice echoed in their heads, _"But your pathetic and blind search made me feel sorry for you."_The unexpected voice of the octopus was startling, holding a surprising amount of steel and strength for something that appeared to be so... squishy.

The octopus reached out a delicate tendril towards Hermione, poking her in the stomach and making her giggle involuntarily. It seemed that it knew exactly where she was ticklish. Once it was finished with her, it reached out for Draco. Instead of tickling the blond, the tentacle wrapped around his throat and squeezed, releasing him before he could even struggle, much less defend himself.

Seeming satisfied with its strange examination of the pair, the octopus addressed them once more. "_I am a creature of Poseidon's domain, and as such see no reason to interfere in the activities of land-dwellers. I will, however, give you a hint: the start of this is based in your past, and you need to visit the Oracle of Delphi. Now go."_

Hermione nodded her thanks, already deep in thought about the meaning of the octopus' words. Draco however, was scowling at it. They'd come all that way and he couldn't feel most of his body, yet all they had to show for it was "visit the oracle."

Both of them were too busy thinking while trying to swim with numb limbs to hear the octopus' parting wisdom.

"_And remember to watch out for giant squid._"


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**A/N: Hello readers! I was going to make you wait until Sunday for the new chapter, because new chapters are always good to soften the blow of Monday, but I have an announcement!**

**So, ChloeDracoMalfoy has brought a wonderful charity to my attention. It's called Fandom for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (google it, you'll find it). How it works is ff authors (me included) are going to upload stories, outtakes, etc. that you can't find anywhere else, and for a donation of $10 or more, you guys get access to said stories AND you get to feel good for helping out! Check it out. Even if you don't want to write something for them or donate, go anyway. Tell people about it.**

**As always, thanks so much to everyone who reviewed and to irianaceleste for betaing!**

**To summerful21: The giant squid at Hogwarts may be friends, but not the ones in the ocean. Luna does have another appearance, don't worry. I like her too! I have no idea where my ideas come from. My mind is just a strange place. Thanks for the review!**

**~Frosty**

Draco disliked oceans in general, the one in which he was currently submerged in particular. Anything that numbed his extremities to the point of sluggish movement despite a liberal and exhausting application of warming spells was bound to put him in a horrible mood.

They had gone far out of their way on a whim based on the words of a terrified and probably addled child and a definitely addled former schoolmate. The octopus was almost no help at all, which didn't help his foul mood.

Even worse, he couldn't make his displeasure known to his partner because they had bubble head charms and no spare energy for communication. Sure, he could make disgusted faces in her general direction, but that would only work if she would properly look at him. Besides the occasional cursory glance to make sure that Draco was still behind her, Granger wasn't paying attention to him.

Like usual, she was foraging ahead while counting on him to guard their rear.

He squinted around them at the murky water. Visibility wasn't ideal. In fact, it was so bad that they were essentially flailing around in the dark, headed towards the bright spot above them that they were assuming was the sun and hoping that nothing in the area suddenly felt inclined to attack them.

Swimming ahead and pretending not to notice the waves of displeasure stemming from her partner, Hermione had no warming when a huge expanse of grey suddenly exploded out of the gloom.

She froze, startled by the sperm whale that very nearly bowled her right over. She knew that the whale wasn't interested in her as a food source, but it was still quite startling to see something so large just appear out of nowhere. While the whale may not want to eat her, it could still do her severe damage just by bumping her with its powerful body.

Behind her, Draco wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back against him, and they both watched the whale pass. Even without the ability to communicate, Hermione knew what Draco was thinking. He was wishing he had his sword with him while wondering where would be best to stab a sperm whale and if it was possible to behead one.

When the whale was gone, Hermione slowly continued her swim towards the surface, watching for anything else that could launch itself at her without warning. There was an awful lot of empty water peppered with the occasional iceberg, but there wasn't much else to see.

Hermione had a return Portkey in one of her pockets... somewhere. Her problem was that it was quite difficult to search through said pockets with numb fingers and that a gentle current was making her drift further and further away from the minimal cover provided by the icebergs. Her only comfort was that if there was something out to get them, it wouldn't be able to see them any better than they could see it in the vast darkness. Of course, this didn't mean a predator couldn't rely on other senses to find them and eat them.

She looked around them once more, still not finding anything but ice, darkness, and an increasingly irritable partner, an irritable partner who, in a flurry of motion, suddenly drew his wand.

When Draco saw that Hermione was staring at him, he jabbed a finger downwards.

It was like something out of a nightmare. Hermione appreciated all wildlife, but she understood that some creatures were best appreciated from a distance. The giant squid was one such creature, which was why Hermione's heart was in her throat as she struggled to gain access to her pockets, desperately searching with numb fingers for her wand.

The giant squid in the Great Lake at Hogwarts had little in common with its wild counterparts. From time to time, the giant squid of Hogwarts had been known to fish children out of the lake and put them back on the safety of the shore. So much time exposed to magic had given it an understanding and care for humans that wild squid just didn't possess. All this squid saw was an easy bite to eat.

Just as she found her wand, one of the squid's tentacles darted out and wrapped around Draco's leg, tugging him towards the beak waiting to consume him. Draco tried to use magic to sever the tentacle, but either his aim was worse than normal or, more likely, he didn't have the energy to put any force behind his spells while still maintaining his bubble head and warming charms. He was without his sword and didn't have magic either.

Draco was almost to the sharp beak when Hermione finally found something in her pocket. Unfortunately, it was the Portkey instead of her bloody wand. Still, getting them out of there would save them from the giant squid just as effectively as fighting it. She was trying to work out a way to get to Draco as she pulled out the Portkey when her wand dislodged from wherever it had been hiding.

She was just as exhausted as her partner, but she dropped her heating charms. The sudden coldness of the water took her breath away for a beat. Knowing that Draco was depending on her, she forced back the shock and cast a nasty Stinging hex at the giant squid to make it release Draco. She knew that he wasn't going to approve of her lack of force, but she wasn't going to kill an innocent creature just because it had been hungry and found what it thought to be easy food.

As soon as the squid released Draco, she rushed forward and touched the Portkey at the same time as she pressed it to Draco's palm.

For convenience, they'd had the Portkey programmed to take them to the bathroom off of Draco's bedroom. Their theory had been that they would be able to easily change their wet clothes and then warm up in the bath.

They lay on the floor, tangled together and dripping like a pair of fish out of the water. Hermione couldn't feel much of anything, but she knew they needed to be warmer.

Her numb limbs didn't want to cooperate, but she forced herself to her feet, slipping on the wet tiles and stepping on Draco's fingers. The fact that he only grunted in complaint was more worrying than anything else. She couldn't see the extent of his wounds, but his lack of complaint and the pink tinge to the puddle beneath them was greatly worrying.

Finally, she managed to wrap her swollen and clumsy fingers around the faucet and hot water poured from the tap. Normally, she luxuriated in the feel of hot water, but in this case, the sudden change in temperature sent pain raking across his skin.

"A-a-a-a-are you all right, D-Draco?" she asked, her teeth chattering so badly that her words came out fractured. She was so cold that it felt like her bones were trying to do the same thing. Her shivers were trying to rip her apart.

"A-as well as I c-can be considering that a b-bloody huge calamari just tried to eat me." Draco's teeth were chattering just as badly as hers, but he clenched his jaw tightly, determined to get the better of his temperate instead of the other way around. It wasn't working.

The steam from the bath warmed the air, stinging their skin as they started to get feeling back into their limbs. Draco levered himself up beside her and they both worked on getting off their wet clothes as the bath filled. They had no strength and their clothes were sticky and stubborn with water weight, so it was quite a battle.

Hermione fought with the buttons on her shirt. The pesky little things were so tiny and slippery that it was virtually impossible to manipulate without the ability to feel her fingers. It didn't help that she was completely exhausted and borderline hypothermic.

Draco was having more luck. Both of them had shucked off their parkas prior to jumping into the water since they would have only weighed them down, so they were left with just their bulky winter clothes. Draco, unlike Hermione, hadn't bothered with undoing his buttons. He'd just ripped his shirt open, not caring that his buttons popped off and littered the floor.

When he saw that Hermione was having difficulties, Draco rolled his eyes, reached over, and ripped open her shirt just as he'd done to his own. He was a little too enthusiastic about the undressing her thing though, because he didn't stop there. Draco leaned over to kiss her, somehow managing to unclasp his bra with numb hands – an impressive feat, all things considered. Apparently he wasn't cold enough for his sex drive to be affected in any major way.

Lost in the kiss, Hermione pressed herself against him. His shirt was already on the floor, but she went to work on his pants while he pulled her bra down her arms and tossed it to the side with the rest of their clothing.

Hermione gasped when he stepped out of his pants, but it wasn't because she was impressed or whatever he probably assumed.

"D-Draco, you're bleeding."

She couldn't believe that she'd allowed him to distract her from his injury.

There was a large gash on his upper thigh that was bleeding quite heavily. Hermione knew that the suction cups along the underside of giant squid tentacles actually contained rather nasty claw-like protrusions. From the look of Draco's shredded thigh, one such claw had nicked an artery or something.

He looked down and then frowned. "I-if it isn't Lovegood, it's something else," he growled. His leg was still too numb for him to really feel the cut, but once Hermione had pointed it out, his injury really made itself known.

Hermione was already trying to get her shirt back on while Draco pulled his pants up once more.

By the time they were both passably clothed again, Draco was leaning heavily on her. Between the blood loss, the exhaustion, and the borderline hypothermia, Draco was in no shape to Apparate to the hospital, so it was up to Hermione. She wasn't much better off than him, but Draco didn't know that. He had no idea she'd been forced to drop her heating spells and subject herself unprotected to the frigid temperatures of the south arctic.

In a puddle of salt water, Hermione and Draco appeared in St. Mungo's. No longer able to hold up the combined weight of her own body and Draco's, Hermione collapsed in a heap right in front of worried Mediwitches and Healers.

Of course, the medical professionals immediately rushed forward to assist, and because they were professionals, they only argued for the briefest moment over who was going to deal with _"him_."

Having used the last of her energy to transport them to the hospital, Hermione fell unconscious just as she was levitated towards a pair of gurneys that had been summoned.

* * *

When she woke up again, Harry was sitting at her bedside.

"What are you doing here, Harry?" Her voice was scratchy, but it was much easier to talk now that her teeth weren't chattering. She still felt little pinpricks of pain throughout her body as it got used to being warm once more, so she couldn't have been unconscious very long.

"Malfoy woke up before you and they wouldn't tell him where you were." Hermione cringed at the mental picture. "He wasn't pleased."

Sitting up carefully, she wiggled her fingers and toes, mentally going over her body to see if she was experiencing any major pain. She was still exhausted and suffering from those little pinpricks, but other than that felt perfectly fine.

"They called in Aurors?" Once she was no longer concerned about missing limbs and whatnot, her full attention focused on what Harry was telling her and what his presence meant. "What did he do?"

"Let's just say that it was only as a favour to you that he isn't in custody right now."

Rubbing a hand over her face, Hermione sighed. She levered herself up from her bed, pleased that she was only a little dizzy after an adventure that could have easily been deadly. "Where is he?"

The only comforting thing about the entire situation was the fact that Draco hadn't had any weapons other than his wand with which to assault the people who had saved him. He'd been so exhausted that, in the event that he managed to use it, his spells wouldn't have packed their normal punch.

"What _exactly _did he do?" She needed to know how bad it was or else her mind was going to immediately jump to the worst case scenario. She really hoped that Draco hadn't found a weapon and beheaded a Healer.

Harry sighed. He knew that look and understood that she wasn't going to let him leave until she got the information she wanted. He was going to have to tell her.

"You probably know better than anyone that Malfoy hates the hospital." Hermione nodded. "Well, the staff here – as I'm sure you also know – have certain measures in place for difficult patients such as him, especially after the stake incident last time." Again, Hermione nodded. "They only go into his room in pairs and he's strapped to the bed at all times for his safety and everyone else's as well."

This was sounding worse and worse. While Hermione understood why the staff of St. Mungo's had put these measures in place, she knew they would only serve to make Draco angrier and probably wouldn't even stop him. It was really in the best interests of everyone that she find him and calm him down before he escaped and unleashed himself on the hospital.

"Even with all those measures in place," Harry continued, "Malfoy managed to free an arm as they were putting the healing potions on his leg. He grabbed the Healer's robes and yanked down, bashing the man's head on the edge of the bed."

Hermione wasn't sure whether she should be relieved that Draco hadn't killed someone with a pudding spoon or furious that he had assaulted a Healer as the man tried to _heal _him. Either way, she was going to give him a stern talking to.

She started across the room. Her limbs still felt a little heavier than normal, but movement wasn't nearly as difficult as it had been before the hospital. She was back to a normal temperature and no longer numb.

Harry jumped from his chair and had his hands hovering at her shoulder as if he expected her to fold up and collapse at any moment. "Hermione, are you sure you should be-"

He cut off when she whipped her head to the side and gave him a nasty glare that was just daring him to push her. Harry was not a stupid man and he hadn't survived so long because he lacked the self-preservation instincts. He immediately backed away from his friend, but still remained close enough that he would probably be able to catch her in the event that she collapsed.

Hermione stormed out of her room but only made it to the hallway outside her door before she realized that she didn't know where Draco's room was. Usually she just followed the yelling and things being thrown and Draco was at the center of it, but this time the entire floor seemed suspiciously silent.

She whirled around on Harry, resisting the urge to steady herself against the wall. Harry would use it as an excuse to send her back to bed and she wasn't having that. "Where is he?"

Knowing that she would just exhaust herself searching for her partner if he didn't tell her where Malfoy was, Harry told her what she wanted. "He's down a floor in room 217. I think they sedated him."

Harry was right; Draco was sleeping peacefully when Hermione finally entered his room. While it wasn't unheard of for him to be sleeping in the hospital after losing a significant amount of blood and magically exhausting himself, it was when Ron was sitting in the corner.

"Are you okay, Hermione?" Ron asked. He shot Harry a look he probably thought was subtle over her shoulder.

"I'm _fine_," Hermione snapped. She didn't appreciate the two of them ganging up on her. Exhaustion and mild hypothermia. She'd certainly had much worse in her time at Hogwarts and during the war. Besides that, she'd recently proven to the two of them that she and Draco were capable of handling dire situations together.

Her attention turned to her partner. He was looking a little paler than normal, but otherwise appeared okay.

"Can you two give me a minute with him?"

Ron, a little slower than Harry, had taken a few seconds to catch on to her mood, but was now fully aware of it. He meekly filed out of the room after Harry, only stopping to give Hermione a quick hug and tell her that they'd both been worried when they'd found out that she was in the hospital.

She rounded on the sleeping form of her unsuspecting partner. In the past, she had lectured him on his childish aversion to hospitals but had kept the extent of her opinions to herself. This had been fine while they were just partners. Now that they were dating, there were a few things that needed to be said.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**A/N: Hello readers! Last night it was super windy and lightning-y. One of our trees was knocked over. Mr. Tree was nice enough to fall between the gazebo and my sister's car, not really damaging either one. He was a good tree. Anyway, I hope none of you guys got hit by the huge storm (though, statistically, a few of you probably did).**

**As always, thanks to everyone who reviewed and to irianaceleste for betaing!**

**~Frosty**

Hermione spent a moment watching Draco sleep, just to make sure that he really was healed. His breathing was deep and unhindered and there was no blood on his leg. She touched a hand to his, just to make sure that he was back up to her temperature. He was actually warmer than her. A quick check of his pulse revealed that his heart rate was right where it should be as well.

Fully assured that he was going to be fine, she slapped his blanket covered chest hard enough to leave a mark. The red spot could remind him in the future not to be an idiot.

His eyes immediately shot open.

"What the hell, Granger?" He struggled against his restraints but quickly gave up on trying to free his arms. The faint bruises around his wrists told that he had already exhausted the route of attempting to tug himself free.

After running his eyes over her – he _better _have been checking to see that she was okay – Draco finally met her eyes. The anger in his expression faded when he saw how upset she was with him.

"You assaulted a Healer," she finally said, her voice shaking with anger. Hermione had known that she'd been upset about his horrible behaviour, but she hadn't realized how upset until she was faced with him.

It hurt her to see him bound to the bed because of his stupid actions. Draco was passion and unapologetic forwardness. To see him bound to a bed and droopy-eyed with sedatives made her angry – not at the Healers for doing what was necessary, but with Draco. He needed to learn to temper his passion or things like this would happen again and again until he broke or was put away permanently.

"Granger-"

"No," she interrupted, "You assaulted someone while they probably saved your life. Did you know that half of the staff here refuse to have anything to do with you? The only reason they allow you into the hospital at all is because of the large donations your mother gives them every year."

Draco tried to interject, but Hermione just bowled right over him.

"In our line of work it's just stupid of you to terrorize the people who patch you up after renegade magical creatures half kill you. One of these days, the few staff here brave enough to go near you are just going to decide it's not worth it and refuse to treat you. We'll have to take you to the magical doctor equivalent of a back alley abortionist in Knockturn Alley and you'll _die _of a completely preventable infection because the guy didn't bother to wash his hands before operating!"

It was Draco's horrified and slightly worried look that let her know she was crying. Hermione was so surprised she actually touched a finger to her cheek to double check that tears were dripping down her face. They really were. She was crying.

It wasn't such a strange occurrence, but she had been sure that she was angry and usually she noticed when she cried.

Now that she had noticed, her tears were not going to let her ignore them. She hiccupped a sob, and then was unable to speak because she was fully crying. Gasping breaths, hot tears, running nose, she had the whole works.

"Granger," Draco said slowly, clearly uncomfortable with her tears, "Did you hit your head or something?"

He watched her cry for a few beats, and then decided that it made him immensely uncomfortable to just sit there while she was so visibly upset. Despite the fact that he had no idea what the hell was up her arse to make her so teary all of a sudden, Draco knew that he wanted it to stop.

"Come here," he ordered gently. Draco was pretty sure he was supposed to reach for her and do the hugging thing that she'd seemed to like in the past. With his arms bound, this was impossible, but closeness would probably still help.

Hermione crossed the few steps between them and then climbed into the bed with him, continuing to sob, this time on his chest.

So great was his concern, Draco didn't even complain that she was getting him all wet with her tears and probably mucus. He tried not to think about it too much. The best way to handle the tears was to make them stop before worrying about drying himself.

"Granger, do I need to get a Healer in here?" All of those tears over something so small were out of character for her, and it was really starting to worry him. Maybe the cold had affected her more than she thought, she just _felt _fine but there was something seriously wrong. Her big brain had cooled too much and now it was malfunctioning.

Her sobs continued. Draco really wished that his hands were free.

"If I promise to make an attempt at treating hospital staff with less... blatant hostility and violence, will you stop crying?"

Her only response was to press her face harder against his chest. Apparently not.

"At least free my hands and let me defend myself," he ordered. He was being assaulted by tears and a hysterical girlfriend and deserved a fair fight. Maybe if he could hug her or stroke her hair or something she'd stop with the tears. She either hadn't heard him or was ignoring him. The tears continued and she showed no inclination to free his hands.

Draco was starting to get desperate. Something was seriously wrong with his partner and he was unable to do anything to help her. Hysterical women were not his strength, and this hysterical woman in particular had the uncanny ability to upset him as well when she cried.

"Potter!" he finally shouted, regretting it almost instantly. The shout had the unfortunate and intended result of bringing Potter into the room.

Eager as ever to save that day and all that shite, the stupid and nosy portions of the Golden Trio rushed into the room. They entered the room looking ready for trouble, but didn't whip out their wands until they saw the state their friend was in.

"What did you do?" Harry demanded, rushing to Hermione's side. He tried to get her off of the blond, but she clung to Draco, still crying.

"Me?" Draco snarled, "_I _didn't do anything. It was clearly something you did, like hit her over the head with a blunt object." Realizing that they were off topic, Draco headed off their response by continuing. "Just release my hands."

"I'm not sure we should."

Of course it was the ginger one objecting. Draco had always thought the Weasel was useless, and now he was starting to think that he was suicidal as well. Clearly Weasley didn't understand that crying females needed to be handled with the utmost care or else they could easily turn into homicidal females. Draco wasn't sure they would survive Hermione Granger turned homicidal, and while that outcome wouldn't be horrible, Draco was worried for his own safety as well.

Potter must have been thinking along the same lines as Draco because he obeyed the blond. Smart Potter, it must have been those sharply honed survival instincts of his.

Hands free, Draco wrapped them around Granger's shaking form and did something he was loath to do, especially in front of Potter and the Weasel. He _comforted _her.

Draco hitched her up slightly so that her face was hidden in the hollow of his throat. He pressed a kiss on top of her head and made soft sounds, halfway between murmurings and a gentle shushing, as he stroked her back.

He resolutely ignored Potter and Weasley, even when they were oddly silent. Later, he could hex them within an inch of their lives or possibly alter their memories. Maybe he'd even get away with making them disappear. His mind drifted off into fantasies of destroying the pair of annoyances. It helped him handle the discomfort of his current situation.

Mercifully, Granger's sobs decreased. It was an immense relief to the clueless and near frantic males in the room, Draco especially.

"Hermione?" Potter ventured first, always looking for a way to martyr himself. "Are you okay?"

She pulled her face away from Draco's neck, aware that her eyes and nose were red and puffy. In fact, her whole face was puffy and it felt like. She probably looked horrible.

Because she knew her partner, Hermione was also aware that Draco was probably quite upset that he'd had to show affection and kindness in front of other people, especially her friends. He wasn't upset enough to release her though, and she greatly appreciated this fact even though he was probably only doing it out of fear that she'd start crying again.

More than anything else, she was horrified at herself for completely losing control of her emotions. Hermione wasn't really sure what had happened. She just knew that she'd thought of Draco dying and the floodgates had opened.

"You," she said, addressing Draco before anyone else, "Are not going to die."

He looked baffled and a little concerned that anything he answered could start her waterworks again. "I know, Granger. I'm only in here for a little blood loss and a touch of hypothermia. They said I could probably be released in an hour or two."

His hands started wandering, checking her over for injuries in a way his eyes hadn't been able to. "They wouldn't let me see you or tell me anything." His eyes narrowed at just the memory of his earlier helplessness. "You didn't really hit your head, did you?"

Harry, feeling uncomfortable about encroaching on the obviously private moment of his friend and Malfoy, cleared his throat. "As a fully licensed Ministry official, Hermione, you're now responsible for Malfoy. We need to get back to work anyway."

After assuring her friends that she was well and bidding them goodbye, all without removing herself from Draco, Hermione turned back to her partner.

"That description of what would happen to me if I was refused at St. Mungo's was oddly specific," Draco commented.

Having cried herself out, Hermione didn't feel inclined to once more burst into tears at his comment. She also didn't feel inclined to answer.

"You have hickeys from where the octopus wrapped a tentacle around your neck. It looks like you have a collar of spots."

Truthfully, she had been putting thought into what would happen to Draco if he kept making enemies of medical staff, the people who made his food, basically everyone around him.

She traced a fingertip over the marks. They really did look like someone had left a trail of love bites across his pale skin. Maybe later she'd leave one of her own. Draco could pretend that it was just another mark from the octopus and no one would think anything of it.

"Don't call them that. I was injured in the line of duty."

"They're hickeys, I'd hardly call that an injury."

"Nope, they're definitely an injury." He smirked up at her. "You're going to have to kiss them better."

She was unable to suppress a little smile, just as Draco had intended. "You've been injured much worse than that and didn't insist on kisses."

"That was before we were together. As my official girlfriend, get well kisses are now your responsibility."

Finally giving in, Hermione was leaning down to kiss his octopus hickeys when someone cleared their throat in the doorway.

"I'm here to discharge Mr. Malfoy," said a terrified looking Healer. He refused to look at Draco, directing his attention to Hermione only.

The glare Draco directed towards the Healer was dark and very annoyed. It was probably a good thing that he was still magically exhausted, or the Healer may have burst into flame.

Hermione pinched her partner and gave him a pointed look.

"I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused," Draco grumbled. Normally, he wouldn't have caved to her demands so quickly, but he had just got her smiling again and really didn't want to see a return of the tears.

For some reason, the apology seemed to frighten the Healer even worse than the glare had. He thrust a clipboard towards Hermione and then fled the room.

"I tried," Draco said with a shrug.

* * *

"Draco, block the door!" Hermione yelled. Her partner glared at her irritably but did as she asked.

The tiny, furry projectile launched itself at Draco's head. Prepared for this move, Draco managed to jump up and grab it just as it tried to fly over him. With his fingers spread, Draco pinned its wings to its body, making sure that his fingers were out of the way of the thing's teeth.

Hermione sighed gratefully, glad that their wild goose chase all over Malfoy Manor was finally at a close.

"Sylvester," she scolded the little horse, "I told you that you're going to like the safe house much better than the Manor."

"He'll have someone other than the House Elves to terrorize," Draco muttered.

As they were leaving the hospital, Hermione had thought up the wonderful idea of bringing Sylvester to comfort Cassy. What little girl wouldn't like a small flying horse?

This plan severed a double purpose. In addition to comforting Casey, Sylvester would be out of Draco's empty house. They were both a little worried that the House Elves would go on strike and let the horse trash the place if they were left at Sylvester's mercy for too long.

Sylvester had a nasty habit of getting under people's skin. Hermione wasn't sure if it was an intentional effort on Sylvester's part or if it was just some kind of natural talent. If there was some way to bother someone, Sylvester seemed able to find it. His fondness for eating Narcissa's prized rosebushes was just one example in a long list of them.

Of course, Draco had tried to object to the idea. However, even he hadn't been able to disagree once Hermione had reminded him that Sylvester would be essentially free to chew on whatever priceless antique he wanted without anyone present at the Manor to stop him. This might be okay for a single night, but both Hermione and Draco knew that it would be foolishly optimistic of them to think that they'd be back to the Manor within a week. Their case had virtually no leads; it would probably be a long time before they had the whole mess sorted – if they managed it at all.

Sylvester tried to nip at Hermione as she bent to his level and scolded him, but Draco pulled him away and shook him a little, earning himself a reproachful look from his partner that he completely ignored.

"You'll like where we're going," Hermione promised the horse once more.

"And if he doesn't, I can try turning him into a harmless teacup again."

"Again?" Hermione screeched.

"Calm down, Granger. The spell clearly didn't work." Draco waited until she was walking further ahead to bring the horse closer to his mouth. "That doesn't mean the spell won't work a second time, pest."

Sylvester seemed completely unimpressed with the threat.

* * *

Just as they had predicted, Auror Smith was _not _pleased that they had left him alone with Cassy, and judging from the enthusiasm with which Cassy greeted them, she hadn't been all that fond of the arrangement either. She was in one piece though, so at least Auror Smith hadn't been completely lax in her care.

"Hermione, what's _that_?" Cassy asked with all the enthusiasm of a young girl suddenly presented with a pony, even if the pony was a small, winged one.

"That," Draco said, answering for his partner since he was the one holding the bloody squirming nuisance, "Is one of the most annoying creatures you will ever meet."

Excitedly, Cassy reached out her hands for the creature. Draco glanced at Hermione, shrugged, and then released Sylvester. Seeming to appreciate finally being wanted, Sylvester allowed Cassy to wrap her arms around him and squeeze him affectionately. He didn't even object when the affectionate squeeze got a little too tight.

"His name's Sylvester," Hermione called after the girl as she ran off with the small horse. Cassy made a sound of acknowledgement, already halfway towards her room.

"She bounces back fast," Draco observed, remembering the shaking little waif that had first clung to his leg in the cave.

They probably would have continued to contemplate Cassy's mental stability had Auror Smith not grabbed Draco by the front of his robes and slammed him against the wall.

"I_ told _you that I'm not a babysitter, yet I spent the day watching the small one!" Auror Smith snarled. Draco's face immediately morphed into a snarl in response.

Hermione hovered behind them, debating whether or not she should intervene, but Draco caught her eye and shook his head slightly. Apparently he had the situation well in hand – or at least he thought he did. She respected his wishes and stepped back a few paces, allowing them some space should it come to an actual fight. Hermione just hoped that Draco remembered assaulting an Auror was a whole lot worse than assaulting a normal person in the eyes of the law.

With surprising calmness, Draco hooked a leg behind the Auror's and shoved enough to bring the other man to the floor. Smith didn't release his hold on Draco's robes, so he ended up bringing the blond down on top of him where they proceeded to roll around, throwing punches. In Hermione's eyes, it was really more of a wrestling type thing. Having spent entirely too much time around adolescent boys, Hermione was confident that they would tire themselves out and then be – if not friends, then at least not so antagonistic of each other.

While they did their punching thing, Hermione went off in search of Cassy.

It had only been minutes since she'd last seen the girl and the miniature horse, yet when she found them, Sylvester had already acquired a bonnet.

Hermione gently knocked on the open door frame. "Can I come in?"

"Sure," Cassy said without looking away from Sylvester.

As Hermione entered the room and perched on the bed, Cassy tried to coax Sylvester into a doll's dress that didn't look like it would fit him. Sylvester was not pleased with this turn of events.

"My mum used to sit on the bed and watch me like that when there was something she didn't want to tell me," Cassy said, still without turning her head.

Shocked, Hermione looked at her, wondering how in the world the little girl was so perceptive, especially since she seemed so absorbed in dressing Sylvester.

"Nothing to tell you," Hermione finally said. "I just wanted to let you know that if you ever need anything, I'm here."

Cassy watched Hermione out of the corner of her eyes, understandably distrustful after the ordeal she had suffered. She started to say something a few times, but kept seeming to think better of it.

"I don't like Auror Smith," she eventually said. "He's not very nice."

"I know. He's necessary though. He's here to keep you safe."

Cassy didn't look convinced and Hermione didn't blame her. The man didn't exactly inspire feelings of safety.

There was a loud bang downstairs. "If you're all right up here, I'm going to make sure they don't break anything."

Cassy didn't answer. She had finally managed to get Sylvester's head in the dress. The fabric squished his wings against his body, the large flowers on the fabric making him look completely ridiculous. Still, he wasn't trying to flee, and Hermione knew from experience that he was more than capable of taking care of himself when necessary.

"Don't give him scrambled eggs," Hermione cautioned as she left the room.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**A/N: Hello readers! New chapter!**

**I always put dividers in my stories, but I've noticed that sometimes the line thingies don't show up in the posted chapters, it just appears as an extra space between paragraphs... It's not me, it's ff . net...**

**Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed (I just noticed that this story was over 100. I've been reading them all, but didn't notice the numbers)! Also thanks to irianaceleste for betaing!**

**To the Guest who guessed about Cassy and Sylvester: Nope. Good try though.**

**~Frosty**

Draco and Smith were both sporting black eyes and other assorted bruises the next morning at breakfast. Despite their injuries, they both seemed to be in good spirits. They had somehow managed to bond over their mutual fondness for violence – specifically beheading things.

"What about a vampire?" Draco asked the other man. He and Auror Smith were seated at the table sipping tea as Hermione and Cassy were making breakfast.

After some discussion, it had been decided that meal preparation would alternate between the adults. When she saw that Hermione was getting ready to prepare a meal, Cassy had insisted on helping. Unfortunately, the safe house wasn't exactly stocked with a wide variety of food. The only acceptable breakfast item was eggs, so Hermione was forced to fend off Sylvester with a spatula while she cooked.

"Ha! Vampires are child's play. If you want a challenge, you should try beheading a harpy. Some of them keep fighting even without their head. Too stupid to die properly, like chickens."

Draco contemplated this as Hermione set a big bowl of scrambled eggs on the table. Without even properly looking, he expertly fended off Sylvester's sneak attack with a jab of his fork that had the horse squealing and hiding behind Cassy. Hermione and Draco were quite used to Sylvester breaking out of whatever room he had been locked in and then storming the table in search of eggs.

"You have a problem," Hermione said to the small horse, who just snorted at her and went back to staring longingly at Cassy's now full plate.

Not wanting the poor child to have to battle against the horse just to eat her food, Hermione snatched Sylvester and carried his wiggling form to Cassy's room. Sylvester had an annoying habit of escaping locked rooms, but it would take him a while, especially with a round door knob. Since they didn't know how he did it, they couldn't stop him. They could, however, buy themselves a little time to eat while he freed himself.

When everyone was finally sitting at the table and eating, Hermione carefully broached the subject of their plans for the day.

"There's something Draco and I have to take care of at work," she started with what she thought was appropriate nonchalance. Draco's eye roll suggested otherwise, but she was well used to ignoring him.

Auror Smith interrupted before she could finish. "I'm sure as hell not sitting here and watching the kid while you two traipse off to wherever."

Worried that the Auror's harsh words would hurt Cassy's feelings, Hermione quickly looked at the little girl. Thankfully, she barely seemed to notice that she was at the center of Smith's anger. Cassy was shovelling her food into her mouth at a rate that would probably have made Ron proud had he been there to witness it and wasn't too bust stuffing his own face to notice.

"We're just going to have to bring the both of you along with us then," Draco said with finality.

* * *

"When I said bring them with us, I was under the impression that we were going to see the Oracle of Delphi, not headed off to do our normal annoyingly tedious work."

Had Hermione's eyes not been clenched tightly shut, she would have rolled them. She was clinging on the back of his broomstick and not really pleased with the position. While Hermione was perfectly capable of riding her own broom, she wasn't as good at manoeuvring as Draco and she tended to squeeze her eyes shut during sharp turns or changes in altitude.

"I didn't want to tangle Cassy and Auror Smith in our divine quarrel. They don't deserve to have gods out to get them just because we're impatient and Auror Smith is a little pigheaded."

She squeezed her arms tighter around Draco's waist when her partner increased the angle of their ascension. Draco always had a little too much fun whenever he could get her on a broom. The sadistic part of him enjoyed having her perched behind him and completely at his mercy.

Cassy, unlike Hermione, was having a great time. She was too young to ride on her own, so she was perched on the back of Auror Smith's broom – with numerous sticking spells to hold her in place even if she forgot to hold on. She cackled with laughter every time Auror Smith dipped their broom or swayed to the side to avoid obstacles.

Not wanting to put Cassy and less so Auror Smith near any gods, Hermione had made a quick stop to her office to pick up the files that had accumulated while she'd been away. The one she'd chosen to handle first was very straightforward and not really dangerous at all. They needed to fly to the top of an admittedly steep and isolated cliff where they were to check the nests of some rather unique birds. According to Hermione's file, there was only a single pair of them left, but the locals had suggested that they thought the birds may have laid an egg.

Once great in numbers, the Stymphalian birds had been hunted by Wizards and robbed of habitat by Muggles. It was all very sad, really. Their story was one that wasn't uncommon enough in both the Muggle and Magical worlds.

Not being the nurturing types, the birds were known to leave their eggs alone for long periods of time. When Hermione and Draco landed on the precarious outer edge of the cliff, the egg was thankfully unsupervised.

Auror Smith hovered nearby. He couldn't really land properly when Cassy was thoroughly stuck to the back of his broom, and he didn't seem all that interested in creature conservation besides.

The nest was small, so it was easy to see that there was a bronze lump the size of a normal chicken egg nestled there among the sticks and bits of fluff.

Hermione searched around in the beaded bag at her hip until she found her magical camera. She snapped a quick picture of the egg for future files. If the Stymphalian birds were multiplying, the Ministry needed to know about it not only for preservation of the species, but for protection of people everywhere.

That done, she took another picture, not wanting to get back on the broom until the last possible moment. Besides, the sooner they wrapped up their business here, the sooner they would all be back in the safe house, trapped there and bickering.

An enraged screech had Hermione and Draco both reaching for their wands. It seemed that the parents had returned to their nest, and they didn't sound pleased to find that their egg had visitors.

"Let me guess," Draco grumbled, "I can't behead these."

"Don't even think about it. And be careful with magic, their feathers can reflect it if the spell hits them at the right angle." Hermione stepped away from the nest and braced herself for the birds to attack, mentally going over her inventory of stunning spells that may work without causing harm to the endangered creatures.

The birds were roughly goose-like in both size and shape but with a few minor differences. Their beak, for one, was that of a predator, more like a hawk's than a normal goose and made of a shiny, razor-sharp bronze. This was because the Stymphalian birds were man-eaters. They were designed for shredding flesh.

Another noticeable difference from geese was their feathers. Like the beak, their feathers were razor sharp and also bronze. Hermione knew from her file that these feathers could actually be launched at enemies and had been known to do considerable damage. If they hit in the right place, one of those feathers could kill a person instantly.

So maybe it was a little less than perfectly safe, but Hermione had made sure that Cassy was wearing clothing stitched with spellwork that would essentially stop any random projectile from injuring her. On top of that, Auror Smith had been instructed to stay well away from the birds in the event that things got ugly. Cassy was well taken care of and perfectly safe.

Shockingly, the birds drew out of their dive as soon as they saw Cassy. In seconds they went from fierce predators intent on consuming the flesh of those who sought to disturb their nest to meek little geese. Both Stymphalian birds landed on the ground near the place where Cassy and Auror Smith hovered and waited as if they expected a treat.

"What's going on?" Draco hissed, low enough that only Hermione could hear.

Her eyes were narrowed as she surveyed the scene before them. "I have some theories, but I don't want to confirm anything until I'm sure."

Draco groaned. "If you suspect Cassy is a god, for the love of Merlin, just tell me your theories. They're almost always right anyway. I don't want to be blindsided this time."

"Let's get back on the broom before those birds decide they might want to eat us after all."

"Maybe they think Smith's going to feed them the child," Draco mused.

"Draco, we're leaving." Hermione was already standing beside the broom waiting for them.

"I've never seen you so eager to get on a broom. Well, except that one time we were using the word broom to describe my-"

The only thing keeping Hermione from hexing him on the spot was the fact that Cassy and Smith were watching them curiously, wondering what was taking them so long.

"This is not the time, Malfoy. Get on the broom."

Smirking, Draco did as she asked. He knew when he'd reached the line, knew better than to cross it when there were deadly man-eating birds in the vicinity. His partner just might leave him there to be torn apart.

Remarkably, the birds just watched as Draco and Hermione mounted the broom and flew away, followed closely by Auror Smith and Cassy. The little girl giggled all the way, smiling and waving at the birds.

"Bye pretty birds!" she called.

With the way the sun glinted off the bright bronze of their feathers and beaks, the birds really were quite pretty in a razor-sharp death machine kind of way.

"Something shook loose in her head while she was with those snake women. The kid's an adrenalin junky now," Draco grumbled.

* * *

"- and then," Cassy told a rapt Sylvester excitedly, "We flew on brooms like witches on the Telly!"

They were back at the safe house, none the worse for the wear from their little outing. Hermione was busy doing the paperwork from their outing while seated at the coffee table in the sitting room.

As always when she did paperwork, Draco was beside her being a distraction. This time, he was distracting her by sleeping with his head in her lap.

They hadn't really had a chance to fully recharge after their stint in Antarctica and the both of them were still fatigued. Unfortunately, since Auror Smith was off securing the perimeter of the safe house and whatnot, Hermione needed to be there to supervise Cassy.

The girl's awed way of speaking about magic sent a jolt through Hermione. Since they'd found her in a magical shop, she'd automatically assumed that the girl was magical as well, but Cassy was speaking like a Muggle. Hermione couldn't believe that it actually hadn't occurred to her that the girl could be Muggle.

Someone was bound to have reported the loss of their little girl. The Ministry had contacts with Muggle law enforcement. She could contact them and see if anyone had reported Cassy missing.

Suddenly, Sylvester squawked and launched himself away from Cassy. He flew towards the window and hovered in front of it. On the outside, a crow could be seen faintly against the darkness on the other side of the glass, mirroring Sylvester's movements.

Crows again. Hermione had never seen Sylvester have a problem with any wildlife until the appearance of these crows. Something was going on with them, but she wasn't sure what.

Her musings were interrupted when Smith stomped back into the room then, looking displeased with life in general and the scene Hermione and Draco made specifically.

"Well isn't this a pleasant little picture. Do you treat all of your colleagues with such... hospitality?" His tone made it clear that he wasn't just talking about lending her lap as a pillow. He'd been in a bad mood ever since they'd returned to the safe house, snapping at everyone. This though, this was too far.

Hermione tensed unconsciously. "I don't like what you're implying," she snapped, keeping her voice low so she didn't wake her partner.

Her cheeks were burning. She couldn't believe the implication that she was some kind of workplace slag. It was people like him who made it difficult for women in the workplace. Hermione could take it, but she had heard stories about female Aurors who hadn't lasted and she was willing to bet that Auror Smith had contributed to their resignation.

Sometime after Smith's entrance, Cassy had slipped from the room, that uncanny sense that children had alerting her to conflict.

Smith looked her up and down in a way that made her uncomfortable. She had met hardened Aurors before, but Smith was a different kind of callous. There was a complete lack of empathy, sympathy, or any kind of soft emotion in his eyes. He was all coldness and violence. Hermione fought off a shudder at the coldness in his gaze.

Without waiting to see what else she had to say about his little unnecessarily voiced opinion, Smith sauntered into the kitchen as if he hadn't just insulted her horribly. Hermione watched him go with a mixture of disbelief and anger, repeatedly reminding herself that hexing him as his back was turned would be a terrible idea. Satisfying, but terrible.

Her attention was jerked back when a hand slid up her cheek and tilted her head down to look at her partner. His eyes were bright with anger but his touch was gentle.

"How long were you awake?" she asked.

"As soon as he walked into the room," Draco was also looking after Smith as well.

"I'm surprised you didn't go after him."

Draco shrugged. "I wanted to, but doing so would only reaffirm what I assume to be deeply rooted misogynistic tendencies. I'd be right there behind you if you want to hex him, though."

Hermione was momentarily floored by his intuitive and thoughtful reasoning. It was a vast improvement on his usual behead first and ask questions later philosophy. Maybe Draco was maturing... or maybe he was just in a good mood because he'd had a nap.

The hand on her cheek slid around to the back of her neck where it pulled her down for a kiss. Draco's mouth went a long way to calming her anger towards pricks like Smith.

"If he ever talks to you like that again," Draco said with forced calmness when she'd pulled away, "Make sure you kick his arse before I can because I'm liable to kill him if I get to him first."

* * *

Unsurprisingly, dinner was an uncomfortable affair – and not just because it was Draco who had prepared it. Having grown up with House Elves to prepare his every meal both at the Manor and at Hogwarts, Draco had very little experience with cooking. He had never had reason to learn to cook besides the occasional camping trip with Hermione in the middle of a forest somewhere. His pine needle tea and leaf wrapped fish were passable, but anything beyond that wasn't something he could do.

"Boiled carrots are gross," Cassy complained. She'd eaten her slightly burnt toast and canned beans, but just stared morosely at her carrots. They were overcooked to the point of being nothing but orange mush.

"Give them to the bloody horse then," Draco grumbled, "I don't care if you eat them or not."

Cassy was at first baffled and then excited. Not reacting at all to Draco's harsh tone – between him and Smith, she seemed to have developed somewhat of an immunity to hostility – Cassy fed the waiting Sylvester her over boiled carrots, smiling the entire time.

Apparently it had never occurred to her to foist off the healthy bits of her meal on a pet. Hermione had a feeling that the girl's parents weren't going to appreciate this new knowledge when she was returned to them.

As soon as she was finished her meal – after making sure to eat all of her carrots so that Draco wouldn't feel like his cooking efforts were unappreciated, of course – Hermione excused herself from the kitchen.

Leaning at an awkward angle and using a book as a table, she rested her back against the headboard of the bed she shared with Draco and penned a quick letter to Harry. Included in her letter was a thorough description of Cassy as well as everything she knew about the girl. With any luck, Harry would be able to contact the Muggle authorities and find some clue about Cassy's origins.

Normally, sending letters from safe houses was frowned upon, but Harry was an Auror and Hermione knew him to be capable of the utmost discretion so she made an exception for him.

For reasons that Hermione convinced herself were purely paranoia, she included a few questions about Smith as well.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**A/N: Hello readers! I think I'm slightly over a week with this chapter, so sorry. But it's here now!**

**I haven't the time at the moment to answer reviews, but I'm getting to them... Eventually. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and to irianaceleste for betaing!**

**~Frosty**

Draco found her there in bed shortly after she finished and sent off her letter.

"Where were you?" she mumbled, already half asleep. It had been a long, exhausting day and she had already been low on energy when it started. She hadn't rested near as much as she should have during their week off and was regretting it.

Seeing her exhaustion, Draco grabbed her feet and yanked them down so her head was resting on her pillow instead of leaning against the wall. Hermione squeaked a little when he pulled her, too tired to even glare properly as he took off her shoes, socks, and then her pants. Half awake and completely pliant, she limply allowed him to undress her.

Draco, much more alert than her, left on her underwear and shirt, only removing the uncomfortable parts of her outfit. He didn't want her accusing him of taking advantage of her exhaustion in the morning when she woke up sans some important pieces of clothing.

"How come you suddenly have so much energy?" she complained as he started kissing her neck.

"I had a nap, remember? I'm going to need to expend some energy if I'm going to be able to sleep in this disgustingly uncomfortable bed."

Hermione sighed. She was too tired for sex and refused to allow Draco to talk her into it only to have her too tired to do anything but lay there while he did all the work. It wouldn't be very satisfying for either of them.

She pulled Draco's head down further and he went along with it, probably because he thought that she was agreeing to his little plan. Hermione turned his head to the side and pressed his ear over her heart. She threaded her fingers through his hair and rubbed them against his scalp.

Draco didn't like cuddling, but Hermione enjoyed his closeness. He claimed to put up with it for her benefit, something Hermione doubted.

It was human nature to occasionally need contact with other humans. Sex was fine, but it wasn't the only way to experience closeness with another person. Hermione wanted to teach him this. The fact that doing so gave them both what they wanted at the moment just made her plan seem that much better.

"Granger, what are you doing?"

Shushing him, she continued to stroke his hair. "Relax."

He had yet to jerk away from her, so she had to assume that he liked it or had at least decided to tolerate it. Draco wasn't the type to stay mute while she did something that he didn't like. Suffering in silence for the benefit of someone else just wasn't his style.

Gradually, he did as she asked, his breathing slowing until he was almost asleep. Hermione, comforted by his weight and warmth on top of her was dozing off as well when he ruined it.

"Are your breasts bigger?" Draco questioned, reaching a hand up to cup the one that his ear wasn't squishing.

"Nice try." She slapped his hand away and went right back to stroking his hair.

Chuckling, Draco rolled over onto his back so that if he fell asleep, he wouldn't accidentally crush her. To Hermione's surprise, he pulled her onto his chest with a hand resting on the small of her back. The warmth she felt was much more than what was given off by his skin.

They fell asleep like that, the bloody uncomfortable bed completely disregarded.

* * *

Hermione received her answer from Harry the next morning. He said he would look into both of the things that she'd mentioned, but it might take him a while. The Muggle authorities were notoriously slow with getting back to the Ministry, mostly because the majority of the police force didn't know about the existence of the Ministry.

Whatever mood Auror Smith had been in the previous day seemed to have passed, as he was completely normal at breakfast the next morning. He even smiled with something that could be mistaken for affection when Cassy bounded into the room, nearly squeezing the life out of Sylvester as she carried him. Oddly enough, Sylvester seemed to be relishing the attention.

"What are we doing today, Hermione?" Cassy asked. She'd been talking about her broomstick adventure almost nonstop since they'd landed. Personally, Hermione couldn't understand the appeal.

Hermione and Draco exchanged a look, but it was Hermione who spoke. "Draco and I actually need to go somewhere ourselves today." Auror Smith started to puff up, clearly readying himself to start yelling at her. Hermione cut him off before he could begin a tirade that would only annoy them and upset the little girl. "I've arranged for a friend to come watch Cassy. All you're going to have to do while we're gone is keep Cassy safe."

This seemed satisfactory to Smith, which was good because Hermione was leaving Cassy with him and their guest whether he wanted her to or not. She would have preferred to bring Cassy along with them, but she was confident that Smith could keep her safe from outside threats and the babysitter would keep her shielded from the surly Auror.

Hermione frowned at the Auror. Smith claimed that he only wanted to do his job and wouldn't do anything more, but if he continued to prevent Hermione and Draco from doing _their _jobs, he really wasn't doing his own.

"Who's going to be watching me then?" Cassy asked.

Harry and Ron had been busy with their jobs, as had everyone else that Hermione could think of to possibly watch Cassy for the day. It had actually been Draco to come up with a solution when he said, "Why not just get the barmy Lovegood woman to watch the kid?"

Luna wasn't as insane as most people thought. She had actually discovered a number of new magical creatures in her travels around the world. In her own, slightly loopy way, she could be quite brilliant. It was just that being in her presence for too long tended to make one a little frustrated.

A knock on the door had Hermione up from the table and rushing to answer it.

"What did we ride to the Ministry in sixth year?" Hermione called through the door. She hated being so distrustful, but they _were _in a safe house and just randomly letting people inside was begging for trouble.

"Thestrals," came the faint voice of Luna.

"Um... Luna?" she asked in confusion when she opened the door to reveal what appeared to be a very slight biker. The helmet was crooked on her head and spewing waves of blonde hair, the leather jacket was so large that it swallowed her, and the huge black boots looked like they would slip around on her feet and trip her.

"Hello, Hermione. I didn't have time to get a Polyjuice potion, so I had to make do with what I had lying around."

"That's fine, Luna." Hermione stepped back so that her friend would be able to enter the house. She forced herself not to ask why Luna had what appeared to be the clothing of a biker in her house on hand. Her eyes widened when she saw the back of Luna's jacket and automatically corrected herself. Luna had the clothing of a biker _gang _member, as evidenced by the patches displayed on the back her jacket.

"We really appreciate you helping us with this," Hermione continued once she'd found her voice.

"Oh, no trouble at all. It's actually quite nice to get out of the house. As you know, my gravity has been misbehaving at home. It's very naughty. I suspect that it's a plot to ruin my advantage over the floating attic mice. If you get an infestation, just open the window and they all float away, except I clearly can't unless I want to risk floating away along with them." She shook her head sadly.

Cassy, listening from the kitchen, looked to Draco with wide eyes. "Are you sure she's okay to watch me?"

Draco snorted but his response was cut short when Hermione and Luna came into the kitchen.

When she caught sight of Smith, Luna tilted her head inquisitively, but then dismissed him and focused on Cassy. Luna smiled dreamily and pulled what looked like a handful of paint-dipped paintbrushes that were struggling to escape her grasp. "You must be Cassy. I thought we could start with some crafts. Nargles are repelled by certain colour combinations."

Cassy looked at her like she was a strange new species of frog that had taken up residence in her shoe. "I don't like paints."

"That's fine. I'll do the painting and you'll be in charge of the glitter shaker."

Somehow, Cassy wasn't as pleased with this compromise as Luna seemed to think she would be.

"We have to get going now," Draco said, dragging Hermione out of the safe house by her arm. He wanted to be out of there before the barmy blonde said something to Smith that had him refusing to be left alone with people. Lovegood tended to have that effect.

* * *

"Granger, where the hell are we going?"

"If you would read a file or occasionally crack a book on mythology, you would know that we're headed towards the temple that houses the Oracle of Delphi." Hermione's scolding usually rolled right off of Draco like raindrops, but this one was particularly ineffective because she slipped on a rock and nearly fell as she finished. Normally, she was sure on her feet, but the footing in the ravine they were traversing was quite treacherous.

Something about the mountain they were climbing interfered with their magic and made Apparition impossible, so they were forced to climb the mountain just like the non-magical people. Draco's aversion to crowds of Muggles had them taking a different way up the mountain, the one without nice stairs and well-worn paths. The incline was just shy of calling for climbing equipment.

Wiping a drop of sweat that trailed down her face, Hermione pressed on. It was hot and she was starting to regret not telling Draco to suck it up and walk with the tourists.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him open his mouth, probably to complain. Hermione didn't say anything, she just turned her red, sweaty face towards him and raised an eyebrow. His mouth closed and he didn't say a word for their entire climb.

When they finally reached the ruins, Hermione was relieved but Draco was unimpressed.

"This is a bunch of rocks," Draco said flatly.

"Don't be silly, Draco. A god would never let their temple fall into disrepair, they're too vain. Moving it, however, so that only true believers could find it makes sense. The Oracle is here somewhere; she's just hidden in the real temple."

"That seems a little farfetched."

"I've given it a lot of thought." Hermione nodded towards a particularly large tourist. He had sweat stains under his arms and was throwing his candy bar wrapper on the ground when he thought no one was looking. An elbow in the ribs from his wife had him lifting the camera that hung on a strap around his wrist and tiredly taking a picture of the ruins while loudly complaining about the lack of bathrooms on the site.

"Would you really want people like that all over a temple dedicated to you?"

Draco saw her point. "Fine, where do you think we should look?"

Lips pursed, Hermione surveyed their surroundings. What she really needed to do was get a good, close up look at the ruins, but there were tour guides and signs everywhere constantly warning people in several different languages to stay away from the historical site.

"We need a distraction," Hermione said absently. They didn't have magic on the mountain, so they weren't able to just conjure something to bring everyone's attention away from them as they snuck into the ruins. That was fine, they were good with improvisation.

She turned back to Draco to see if he had any suggestions, but her partner wasn't there.

Frantically, Hermione's eyes darted around, searching for the bright patch of blond that she knew so well. There was so much trouble that he could cause unsupervised among so many unsuspecting Muggles. She cringed when she saw him sneaking up on the sweat stained man from earlier. Draco's malicious grin said that he was up to no good and relishing it.

Hermione wanted to close her eyes and brace for the chaos, but she knew she had to keep them open to watch. If there were charges pressed, she wanted to know as much about the situation as possible. The Ministry would appreciate her memories.

While the sweat stained man's back was turned, Draco shoved a slightly smaller man into the larger one and then slipped away before either man noticed that it had been Draco to instigate the resulting collision. Sweat stained man stumbled forward and then immediately rounded on the smaller one. The shouting match that ensued drew the attention of everyone in the area.

"What were you saying about a distraction?" Draco asked smugly.

"You enjoy manipulating Muggles a little too much for me to be comfortable."

Shrugging, he led the way down the slope to the ruins.

"Do your thing quick, Granger. I don't think either of those men have the endurance to last very long shouting at each other like that. We've only got minutes."

The temple was large, but almost entirely in ruins. Only a handful of the original pillars were still standing on the rocky ground and they didn't look like they'd be standing for much longer.

Hermione nodded, scanning the ground. The sun above them was bright, but she was searching for the place where the sunlight was the brightest. A temple for the god of the sun would shine brighter than normal sunlight – or at least this was Hermione's hope. Unsurprisingly, she hadn't been able to find many hints about the location of the temple in her history books.

If Hermione's quick calculations were correct, then the place that got the most sun throughout the day was between two pillars. She squinted against the sunlight reflected from the light-colours stones. It was hard to tell, but she was pretty sure the light was brightest between the two tallest pillars.

"Sweat stains is about to have a heart attack or something, Granger. I give him another few seconds before he searches for some shade and a chair."

"I know where we're going." Hermione grabbed Draco's arm and dashed towards the two pillars.

Her careful thought was rewarded when the air between the pillars shimmered as if from extreme heat. They passed through and came out on the other side in a completely different place.

It was clearly a cave, but there was an improbable amount of sunlight streaming through a small hole in the roof. Just one fist-sized hole allowed so much light to enter that even the stone walls seemed the sparkle. The giant fresco that took up the majority of the far wall was nearly blinding to see.

Draco looked around and sighed. "I was half hoping that your idea wouldn't work so I could create another Muggle scene."

Not bother to look towards him, Hermione swatted Draco in the chest. Her eyes were busy scanning the new temple. Water poured from spouts in the wall into a basin along two of the three fresco-free walls. There wasn't a speck of algae or pond slime, showing the temple was well maintained despite its remote location.

Bright reflections from the water sent rippling reflections along the walls, only furthering the light bouncing around the room. The complete lack of shadows made it obvious that Hermione and Draco were alone in the temple.

Draco squinted up at the near-blinding fresco depicting Apollo, posed naked in the sky while miniature mortals bowed down to him. It was so large and detailed that the expression of worship and awe on the faces of the mortals was impossible to miss.

"Modest, isn't he?" Draco asked.

"Don't speak ill of a god in his own temple."

Dead center under the larger than life Apollo was a long stone table, presumably for offerings to the god. It was almost completely empty. If Apollo wanted more offerings, he probably should have made his temple easier to find.

Hermione searched around in her beaded bag until she found a small wineskin that she'd packed just for this purpose. She set it on the table and then turned her eyes to the only other thing resting the stone was what appeared to be an answering machine – and not a particularly new one either.

"What's that?" Draco asked, warily approaching it.

Hermione didn't answer, instead pushing the button. A tinny voice echoed around the bright cave. "If you're here to see the oracle, you're a little late. I've gone to Athens for some gelato and I won't be back for three weeks at _least_. Good luck with your issue and I'm glad I don't have to listen to you whining about it."

The fact that there was a working answering machine in the temple at all had to be due to a little divine intervention. That its message happened to be in Hermione and Draco's first language was a little much, even for the gods. Either it there was some magic in place to change the language of the machine or the Oracle had known that they were coming.

"Who takes three weeks to get gelato?" Draco wondered. "I'm a little concerned about the competence of this oracle." He plucked something from beside the answering machine. It was a fluorescent pink sticky note that said:

_If you're really that desperate to reach me, you can call me at 216-555-4365. Just know I won't be happy about it._

"She sounds like a bundle of fun." Draco handed the note to Hermione and went in search of an exit that wouldn't lead them somewhere scrutinised by dozens of Muggles with cameras. The Ministry was sensitive about that kind of thing.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**A/N: Hello readers! I think it's been more than a week since I last posted. Sorry! I was exhausted from an iron deficiency then I got sick... Here's a chapter though!**

**Also, remember I've written a oneshot for the Fandom for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (link in my profile). For a small donation, you get access to my story and a number of other wonderful stories.**

**Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed (I got behind on answering them as well as my posting, sorry) and to irianaceleste for betaing!**

**~Frosty**

Hermione stared at the Oracle's note with a frown. There were only so many hours in the day and they had already used a good portion of them on the mountain climb. They just didn't have time to climb down the mountain again, Apparate to Athens, and then try and hunt down the gelato shop where the Oracle was hiding before they needed to be back at the safe house to relieve Luna of her babysitting duties.

Besides that, Hermione didn't have a mobile and needed a phone to call the Oracle. Athens was just too big to search without _some _way of narrowing the search a little.

Draco found the exit before Hermione had stopped her contemplative staring at the sticky note. The expediency of his discovery was partially due to the fact that the exit wasn't concealed at all.

On the same wall as the fresco, there was a bright golden piece of fabric concealing a doorway. Like the rest of the temple, the fabric was in surprisingly good condition considering how old it must be. The gold had probably been brighter originally, and it was a little threadbare, but it was still blinding in the bright light reflecting around the room.

Frowning as the ancient fabric brushed against him, Draco peered up the long staircase beyond the doorway. There was a lot of light at the top of those stairs.

Hermione finally noticed what had her partner's attention and peeked around his shoulder. "These stairs either take us to Olympus or back to the surface."

"I'm not sure which one I'd prefer. On the one hand, the gods are unbearably annoying, but then, so are Muggles – especially _tourists_." He started up the stairs without knowing the answer; either way he was going to have to get out of the temple somehow. Hermione followed behind him.

* * *

Hermione was right in thinking that it would be too late to hunt for the Oracle once they reached the bottom of the mountain. They emerged not where the Muggle tourists were, but on a spot further along the mountain. The trek back down from the different position had been even more treacherous than their ascent had been – something Draco had pointed out as frequently as possible on the journey. Hermione couldn't glare him into silence this time because they both knew the difficulty of this trip had nothing to do with Draco's preferences.

The weather wasn't as unbearably hot as it had been earlier in the day, but the summer night was still awfully warm. Hermione pulled her mass of damp hair up off of her neck and wound it in a messy bun in an effort to stave off some of the horrible heat. It didn't work.

In order to get to their Portkey that would return them to England, Hermione and Draco had to Apparate to a remote location on the coast once they reached the bottom of the mountain. Both of them were hoping that maybe it would be cooler once they were closer to sea breezes. With relief from the heat in mind, they Apparated the moment they felt their magic surge back into existence within them.

Hermione searched along the ground while Draco looked at the water contemplatively. There was a bit of a drop to the ocean from the cliff they were on, but there was a well-worn path in the cliff where people had clearly dragged themselves out of the water after jumping.

"What do you say to cooling off a little before we go back to that safe house?" Draco asked, suddenly right behind Hermione. He didn't wait for her answer, just grabbed her around the waist and threw her into the water. Hermione had a second to look up at the nearly full moon and Draco's hair, silvered by its white light, and then she was plunging below the cool water.

Lucky for her reckless partner, she was a skilled swimmer and had no trouble popping up a moment later, gasping from the sudden shock of the cooler water. Having jumped in right after her, Draco popped up beside her with a grin on his face.

"You threw me off of a _cliff_!" Hermione screeched, diving on him and shoving his bobbing head below the surface. She held him there for a moment, indulging her need for vengeance. "I could have died!"

Draco came up without sputtering, having expected some sort of retaliation. She hadn't stopped yelling at him even when he was underwater. He rolled his eyes and dunked her back before she could really get some momentum to her rant. "I jumped right after you. If I thought it was dangerous, why would I follow you to possible death?"

Hermione had been mid inhale when Draco dunked her, so she came up trying to cough the water out of her poor lungs, glaring at him all the while. She thought about scolding him more, but he had a look in his eyes that said he fully intended to keep dunking her until she stopped.

Knowing when to yell at him and when it was better to remember her grievance for later, Hermione put aside her irritation. Draco wasn't going to change and she wasn't able to alter the fact that he'd thrown her over a cliff.

"I can see you stewing over there, Granger. Neither of us are hurt and we're both much cooler now. Enjoy it."

She gave him one last glare, aware that it was much less lethal than the one she'd directed towards him only moments before. Satisfied that he knew how irritated she was with him for his little stunt, she leaned back, spread her arms and just floated on the waves, relishing the coolness.

She had a brief moment of concern over things lurking under the water and waiting to grab her, which made sense when her recent encounter with a giant squid was taken into consideration, but she quickly dismissed that worry. It had obviously been some sort of fluke or possible divine intervention that led the squid so near the surface just as they were passing.

While Hermione floated, Draco swam over to a large rock and pulled himself up so he could soak up the moon's rays. It was as close to sun tanning as he could ever get with his chronically pale skin.

"Granger, you're drifting pretty far," Draco commented when he happened to glance around for his partner and found that the drifting hair patch that he'd been using to keep track of her was much farther than he'd expected it to be.

Just as surprised as her partner with the distance between them, Hermione swam over to the rock, reflecting that the current must be stronger than either of them had thought.

Draco hauled her up on the rock beside him, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"What are you up to?" she asked suspiciously, having long ago learned to be wary when he looked so carefree. While he truly cared about little, there was always massive anger and heavy thoughts keeping Draco from being lighthearted. Too much had happened to him, both during the war and after for him to manage childlike anything with much regularity.

Instead of answering, Draco gave her a grin – not a smirk, a_grin_– like a naughty schoolboy with a stash of fireworks. He grabbed her hands and lifted them above her head, pinning them there in one of his while he stretched over top of her. His other hand was busy undoing the buttons on her white blouse. While the material had become translucent in the water and wasn't doing much to conceal her bra from the world, she still wasn't sure she wanted the meager protection it provided removed.

"Draco, someone might see."

He raised his eyes from her chest incredulously to meet hers and then turned to scan the unoccupied cliff and vacant stretch of water.

"Someone could pass by at any moment," she grumbled when his only answer was to raise an eyebrow at her.

When her troubled frown didn't disappear, he sighed, leaned back on his haunches and gave their surroundings a more thorough examination. There was still not a person, god, or threatening sea creature in sight.

"Granger, even on the off chance some late-night fisherman passes by and gets an eyeful, I promise you that you have nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, you'll probably be the highlight of his night." He went back to her buttons, with one hand and repining her hands and the other busy with her shirt. This time he went on without any objections from her. "You're definitely going to be the highlight of my night."

When she still didn't quite look convinced, he leaned down and gave her a kiss that had her toes curling and made her briefly forget how exposed they were. She opened her eyes for a moment and thought she saw a shadow on the cliff behind Draco, but it was just a pair of birds.

A small part of Hermione's brain still wanted to object that they were in public and that anyone in a passing boat or on top of the cliff would be able to see them clearly, but the rest of her smothered that small part. She knew that she would be mortified later when she was once more thinking clearly. At the moment though, Hermione could care less if someone saw. She pulled at her hands, but Draco refused to release them.

Completely in control of his bossy partner and relishing it, Draco took his time. He undid her buttons carefully, drawing out the tension for the both of them. His patience was rewarded when Hermione squirmed impatiently and pulled away from his mouth to glare at him.

"Patience, Granger," Draco scolded, laughter and lust warring in his voice. He leaned down to connect their lips once more.

In the end, Hermione had been right in her assessment that Draco looked like he was hiding a stash of fireworks. While there had been fireworks, Draco hadn't been hiding them, they were something he willingly shared with her.

"We rocked the world," Hermione said with some surprise. Her post-sex brain wasn't yet up to its usual standards.

Feeling the same thing as his partner, Draco looked down. "I don't think it's the world that's moving. Our rock seems to be walking."

She scrabbled onto her knees and peeked over the edge of the rock, squinting at the inky water. "It's a giant crab!"

Now that she was looking closer, Hermione saw that the rock was indeed a giant crab. Its shell was camouflaged to look just like the surrounding cliffs, so it wasn't surprising that both she and Draco had taken it for an everyday rock.

Thought to be extinct, the Mediterranean giant crab had been known to grow large enough to carry whole houses on their backs. They were the source of most Muggle moving island legends. But there hadn't been a record of them for over 400 years.

Hermione was pretty sure that making love on the back of rare magical creatures was disrespectful. If her boss ever found out about it, she'd probably lose her job. Grimacing, she looked to her partner. "We will never speak of this to anyone. If it got out that people from our department have had sex on one of the magical creatures we're supposed to be protecting, we'll become a laughingstock."

Draco snorted. "I wasn't planning on sharing, especially with someone from the department." He looked over the edge just as Hermione had, wanting a look at the crab. "This thing is moving awfully fast."

He was right; the crab was quickly moving into deeper water and they were still naked. Hermione made a grab for her clothes, but they were caught on a bump in the crab's shell. Somehow, while Hermione tugged fruitlessly on her caught clothing, Draco managed to wiggle into his sodden shirt and pants with relative ease considering the way the fabric clung.

Reaching the edge of the shelf, the crab disappeared into deeper water, leaving the clothed Draco and completely naked Hermione treading water. They watched the crab disappear into the inky blackness of the water. Hermione's wand popped up beside her, the natural buoyancy of the wood freeing it from her clothes. She tried to summon them to her, but the only thing that came to her was her beaded bag, and she didn't have a chance of clothes in there.

"I guess you're just going to have to swim back and get the Portkey like that," Draco said cheerily. He was absolutely chuffed that she was without her clothes.

"Give me your shirt."

He laughed. "And deprive myself of the wonderful view?"

Fortunately, Hermione knew how his mind worked. "Auror Smith is back at the safe house. Do you really want him to see me naked?"

Draco started swimming back without giving her his shirt as she'd thought he would. "Smith's back at the safe house; I can still enjoy the view on the swim back and the walk up the cliff."

"Draco Malfoy, if someone sees me, I'm going to strangle you with seaweed!"

* * *

A few quick spells had Hermione and Draco dry when they appeared back in the safe house, but they were both missing a few articles of clothing. Draco was without a shirt while Hermione was only wearing his shirt. Their shoes were long gone.

Cassy was the first to notice them. She came running into the room with Sylvester flying after her as soon as she heard the door. From a security standpoint, that really wasn't safe. Hermione would have said something, but she was distracted by Cassy's appearance. She suspected that Luna was to blame but wasn't sure how to politely word a question. Draco didn't have any such qualms.

"What the hell did Looney Lovegood do to you?"

Cassy touched her hair, which was standing straight in the air as if she was hanging upside down and covered in several different shades of paint and glitter. "Luna made me float, then flipped me over and froze my hair this way. Isn't it fun? I didn't even mind the crafts we did." Cassy tilted her head to the side and stared at them with an expression similar to the one with which Draco was regarding her. "Where are the rest of your clothes?"

"I'm wondering the same thing," said a voice behind the girl. Smith finally entered the room, presumably to see if Cassy was still alive after opening the door. Hermione made a mental note to have a little chat with him later.

Seeing her expression, Draco made a note to watch her and make sure he was there for the little chat she was planning. Something was off about Auror Smith and Draco didn't want Hermione alone with him.

Draco stepped slightly in front of his partner when he saw the way Smith was looking at her. Only Draco was allowed to look at Granger with such an intense expression. It was part way between lust and anger and had no business being directed at his partner.

"A letter came for you," Smith said, handing Hermione a sealed envelope. He had to reach around a glaring Draco, but pretended nothing was out of the ordinary.

In the time since she'd left, Hermione had forgotten about Luna's biker getup, so it was a surprise when the blonde woman walked to the door wearing the leather ensemble. "If you don't need me here anymore, I have to be getting home," Luna said. "I'm a little behind in my writing for the Quibbler this month because it's so difficult to get ink to flow without gravity."

"We appreciate your help, Luna," Hermione said with a smile as Luna hugged Cassy goodbye.

"You're not going to be quite so appreciative when you see what she's done to the kitchen," Smith said with more than a little amusement.

Once Luna was gone and Cassy had lost interest in the spectacle of Hermione and Draco's lack of clothing and wandered off, Hermione finally glanced down at the letter. She briefly forgot that Smith was in the room and ripped into it, wanting to know what was so important that the Auror Department – not Harry, his department – was sending her a message while she was in a safe house.

Draco however, did not forget the Smith was in the room and looking at Granger inappropriately. While she read, Draco grabbed her elbow and steered her up the stairs and to the room they shared.

"I really don't like the way Smith looks at you," Draco spat as soon as they were in the privacy of their room and the privacy spells that kept them from being overheard.

"I don't either, but he hasn't done anything and I'm more than capable of protecting myself in the unlikely event that he does." Hermione's answer was automatic; she wasn't really paying attention to their conversation. She was completely focused on the letter that she was reading.

"The Auror department wants us to clean out a vampire nest immediately," Hermione told him when she finished.

Draco dropped his angry expression and perked up considerably. "Excellent. Let's stop at the Manor so I can get my sword."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**A/N: Hello readers! I was going to post this a while ago, but I was without power. It was a traumatic time for me.**

**As always, thanks to all of the wonderful people who take the time to review! Also, thanks to irianaceleste for betaing!**

**To summerful21: Sorry, no smut for me. I tried, it was just an uncomfortable experience all around. I know the plot drags a little. I was focused on making something at least a little light hearted when I was writing and now that everything's pre-written, it would take all kinds of work to rewrite all of the chapters and speed it up again. Sorry. Anyway, thanks for the review!**

**~Frosty**

Just like the last nest they had cleaned out of vampires, this one was located in an abandoned warehouse. There was something about the dark, empty spaces right on the edge of dense population that was immensely appealing to vampires. The letter from the Aurors hadn't specified _why _they needed the vampire nest cleared out, but Hermione didn't like how close it was to a Muggle elementary school so she didn't question it too much.

Draco didn't question it at all. He was just pleased that he was going to get to behead something without getting scolded by his partner. If he fit in a beheading along with a good shag all in one day, it would be a good day indeed, scorching hot climbing of mountain aside.

Had he been given the chance, Smith probably would have argued about being left along with Cassy, but the orders had come right from the Auror Department and he couldn't go against them. Cassy was so exhausted from her eventful day with Luna that she wouldn't even notice the difference.

The letter had been accompanied by a brief description of the nest. Apparently there were only five or so vampires. It shouldn't take them very long at all to clear off the nest.

Glancing up at the sky, Hermione frowned. There was a trio of crows sitting on the edge of the warehouse, watching them.

"Have there always been this many crows around or am I paranoid after seeing that huge group of them outside the safe house the other day?"

Draco turned his eyes up to the birds as well. "It's hard to tell, I've never paid much attention to the things."

"They've been known to be associated with-"

He held up a hand. "If this is going to take a while, can we put it on the back burner for now? I'd really like to behead some vampires."

Rolling her eyes, she drew her sword from where it rested at her hip. She wasn't offended. Draco was right; they shouldn't be discussing theories in a back alley where anyone could hear, especially when there was a nest of vampires waiting for them.

She shot a glance at her partner. "Are you ready for this?"

His silver eyes flashed with the same spark as his drawn sword. Draco was having the most fun he'd had in a while. He was always at his best when there was a creature to be beheaded. "More than ready."

Standing back, Hermione watched as Draco kicked in the door and then rushed into the building. She followed behind him with her sword raised and ready to take down anything that managed to get past her partner.

Their entrance made a lot of noise, drawing all of the vampires into the echoing emptiness of the warehouse's working floor. The letter had been wrong; there were eight vampires, one of which Draco had beheaded before Hermione was even on the scene. She watched him for a moment, appreciating his strength as well as the wild and vaguely worrying joy in his eyes.

Her staring was cut short when one of the vampires noticed that Draco wasn't the only target in the room and dove at her. Three other vampires quickly followed, probably thinking her to be the easier target. While she didn't have Draco's brute strength and intensity, she had a precision and superior knowledge of her prey. Their skills evened out and made them pretty much equally difficult opponents.

She jumped back a step as a vampire took a swipe at her, and she responded with a slash that lodged her sword halfway into the neck of the vampire. Hermione took a page out of Draco's book and swore as she yanked her embedded sword out of the vampire's neck and then swung again, this time with enough force to completely behead the vampire. It hadn't even turned to dust before her attention was elsewhere.

The time she spent vulnerable and fighting with only one vampire left her open to attack. She had to quickly turn around so that the vampire sneaking up on her didn't catch her off guard.

"Hey Granger," Draco called as he calmly swung his sword in a broad arc that neatly beheaded the vampire in front of him.

"What?" With less finesse, Hermione jerked her arm away from a vampire that had been about to bite it and stabbed it in the eye. Not quite a beheading, but it still slowed the thing down a little – long enough for her to behead it properly.

"Isn't it a little strange that the Auror department didn't send an Auror with us to do this?"

"I was thinking the same thing," she said grimly. Having spent enough time physically defending herself that Draco wouldn't tease her about pulling her own weight later, Hermione sheathed her sword and pulled out her wand.

Sunlight charms were only as strong as the castor, and Hermione's were exceptionally strong. However, she could still only cast a charm strong enough to eliminate two at once, maximum. Draco was on his fourth vampire while Hermione finished off her third.

Not so horribly outnumbered, she hung back and watched as Draco handled the rest of them. Her partner had more of a taste for violence that she ever would.

She kind of poked around the warehouse while keeping one eye on her partner to make sure that she didn't need to cast a quick shield or sunlight spell to save his butt. She was rather fond of his butt.

Draco sliced the head off of the last vampire, breathing a little heavily but hardly winded. "Let's get out of here and make sure everything's okay back at the safe house," he called.

Hermione was in complete agreement.

* * *

The door was gaping open when they arrived. Hermione's stomach immediately dropped. She should have trusted her intuition! Not stopping to think, she rushed towards the house, only to be stopped by Draco's hand on her elbow.

"I know you're worried about the kid, but you can't go getting yourself killed just because you let your emotions get the better of you."

He was right. Hermione knew that he was right, yet she still tugged half-heartedly a few times. She shouldn't have left the helpless little girl that had already been through so much alone with an Auror that she knew for a fact wasn't the best person to leave alone with a child. If Smith had let something happen to her, Hermione was never going to forgive him. In fact, she'd make sure to have his job.

When Draco saw that she was thinking properly and had drawn her wand, Draco released her and then followed her into the safe house, his own wand drawn as well.

Any suspicions they'd had regarding Auror Smith pretty much completely dissolved when they found the man lying in a pool of blood in the foyer. Hermione wanted nothing more than to continue the search the rest of the house for Cassy, but she knew that Draco wouldn't stay there to make sure that Auror Smith was okay. Without glancing at each other for confirmation, Hermione kneeled down and pressed her fingers to Smith's neck to check for a pulse while Draco continued further into the house in search of Cassy.

Smith's pulse was beating strong under her fingers, but he was colder than he should be and had lost so much blood. She quickly ran her eyes over him in search of a wound, eventually finding a nasty slash in his shoulder. If she had to guess, she'd say that someone had stabbed him with a razor-sharp, yet very small knife.

Casting a healing spell, she got a better idea of the wound. An artery had been nicked, but it was a clean cut healing and Smith had started to show signs of waking up when Draco came back into the room. His grim expression let her know right away that Cassy hadn't been anywhere in the house.

"Even the horse is gone," Draco said.

Only then did Hermione notice that Smith's blood was soaking into her knees. She cleaned up the blood on him, her, and the floor with a quick cleaning spell, though even with magic she didn't think the carpet was ever going to be the same.

Smith's eyes blinked open then. With all of the blood that he'd lost, it didn't surprise Hermione that he seemed to struggle to get her into focus. His eyelids fluttered several times before he managed to keep them open and meet hers.

"I did everything I could to keep her safe, but I lost too much blood and blacked out." His eyes were asking for her understanding and despite whatever doubts she'd had about him, Hermione couldn't help but believe him. Draco seemed less willing to do so, but that was just his hatred for the man getting in the way of whatever compassion he possessed under all of his anger.

"Did you see who did it?" While Hermione would have preferred a more gentle voice from her partner, she also wanted to know the answer to his question. She joined her partner in looking at Smith expectantly, thought without the vague threat that Draco exuded.

"There were three of them," Smith said, looking at Draco almost challengingly. "One of them stabbed me with something while the other two grabbed the kid and the horse. I didn't see their faces or anything, but they didn't use magic. They may have been Muggles."

Hermione strongly doubted that. Muggles wouldn't have been able to get past the wards without some type of magic – unless someone let them in, of course. She took a second look at Smith, just to make sure that her initial assessment of him was correct. There was no guilt in his eyes and there was no refuting the wound on his shoulder.

Magical beings tended to look at injury with a slightly different eye than Muggles because they had potions and spells that could instant heal many wounds that would take weeks or even months for Muggle medicine to repair. Still, Hermione doubted that Smith would intentionally allow someone to give him such a life-threatening injury just to assuage any doubt that may be directed towards him. He had no way of knowing that they would be back to rouse him before he died of blood loss.

Standing, Hermione conjured a Patronus and sent it to the Auror department informing them that the safe house had been compromised. Normally, she and Draco would report to the Ministry themselves, abandoning the safe house in case the attackers returned. However, the attackers had acquired their target and no longer had a reason to return, and Smith was in no position to be Apparated anywhere.

While she may not be overly fond of the man, she wasn't going to leave him alone and injured after he had been hurt defending Cassy. Her eyes travelled back down to the man on the floor, who now wore a grimace of pain. If she thought about it, she was indirectly responsible for his pain. If she had been quicker to catch the false order to clear the vampire nest, she may have been back in time to stop Auror Smith from being injured and prevent Cassy from being kidnapped... again.

Her only consolation was that Cassy was with Sylvester. That little horse could take care of himself, and hopefully do something for the little girl as well.

While they waited for Aurors to appear, Hermione and Draco each took one of Smith's arms and helped him walk to a chair in the kitchen. He groaned and gasped in pain with every movement, and at one point all the blood drain from his face, leaving his already bloodless skin even paler. He managed to keep himself upright without assistance though, which was impressive in his condition.

Hermione felt eyes on her and looked up to see that Draco was watching her. He stepped up beside her and bumped her with his shoulder.

"Stop blaming yourself for this, Granger. We're all just doing our jobs. I'm sure Smith would agree." When Smith didn't immediately answer, Draco bumped his chair, making the man flinch. "Auror Smith?"

"Not your fault," he grunted.

It was a sentiment to how out of sorts with worry that Hermione was that she didn't even give Draco a dirty look for being so rough with someone that, while admittedly unpleasant most of the time, was on their side.

Needing something to keep her hands busy, Hermione set about making a large pot of tea. She knew that they could all use some and that the Aurors would probably appreciate a beverage when they arrived.

* * *

"How could they just - just send us home?" Hermione yelled, her voice shaking with anger. Her hands were shaking as well and she could feel that her cheeks were red with anger.

After she'd served them their tea and they'd investigated the house, the Aurors – no one she knew – had told her that it was best she just go home. They'd known who she was, who she knew, and while they'd given her the respect warranted by her war hero status, they'd been adamant. Hermione wanted to be part of the investigation into Cassy's disappearance, but the Aurors had insisted that she go home, get some rest, and "leave finding the missing child to the professionals."

Those condescending Aurors were lucky that Draco had been there to literally drag her away from them before she could get to her wand. For once, he was acting as the rational one while it was her whose anger threatened to overwhelm her. Even knowing that she'd be glad for Draco's actions later, she couldn't help but being a bit angry with him as well.

Knowing better than to draw her attention to him while she was spitting mad, Draco just sat back and watched her as she paced and ranted. They were well away from the Aurors – or any living people, really – so he felt it was best that she get all of her anger out of her system. Draco knew from experience how to handle anger.

If he was lucky, she'd tire herself out before she remembered that he was in the room. Old Draco would have just left her to her distress, but he was growing or something, because he just couldn't leave her alone in the drafty Manor with her emotions.

"We have to do something. What if those Aurors miss some important clue that could lead to finding Cassy? We need to go back and look at the safe house again in case there's something we missed."

And there was the line. Now he was going to have to intervene before she went charging off into the night.

"Granger, you're going to get yourself arrested if you keep this up. Those Aurors are already pretty unhappy with you for calling them 'useless, uncaring twats' as I dragged you out of the house. Not that I'm objecting to your description, it was accurate and I'm more than a little aroused by the way you insulted them." He got himself back on track before his partner turned on him. "We need to let the Aurors handle that case and work on our own. I have a feeling that whoever started the plague is the person who has Cassy and we both know that this person is almost certainly a deity of some sort. We're the only ones who can handle this, so we're going to have to find the cause of this plague before the Aurors get any leads on Cassy's disappearance."

With all of the pieces of the puzzle presented to her so neatly, Hermione was unable to resist. She stopped her angry pacing and sat down to divert all of her energy to her brain while she thought about what Draco had said. She missed Draco's knowing and victorious smirk because her eyes were unfocused and staring into space.

His plan backfired when Hermione's eyes suddenly refocused on him, shining with a new purpose. "We have to go see the Daughters of Echidna right now. Cassy could be there right now."

Draco cringed, disappointed that he hadn't anticipated _that _course of action. He should have known better though, she'd been a Gryffindor back in school, facing down Voldemort with her suicidal, yet incredibly lucky friends of hers.

"Granger, it's a little late to be gallivanting to other continents."

"Draco," she mimicked his irritated tone. "It's possible that Cassy's kidnapper took her back to the snake women so that they could finish off the job of killing her. In case your memory needs to be refreshed, they weren't just keeping her company until her parents came to get her."

Resigning himself to the fact that he wasn't going to get any sleep that night, Draco stood from his chair. "Let's get this over with then. Before I remember that I'm a horrible person who doesn't give a shite about the kid."

Hermione ignored him. He wasn't as horrible as he liked to think, but he would be annoyed with her for pointing this out. They both pretended that he was horrible as they gathered what they needed to take another trip to see the snake women.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**A/N: Hello readers! Allergies suck, just for those of you who don't know first hand.**

**Thanks as always to all of the wonderful people who review. Also thanks to irianaceleste for betaing!**

**Also! For those of you with any knowledge of Greek mythology, I've fiddled with it to make it fit my plot, so some things might be slightly off.**

**~Frosty**

"We should have thought of this," Hermione murmured as they stared at the storefront. She'd been so set on running off to save Cassy from the snake women that she hadn't given much thought to the unimportant little technicalities.

"That the place would be closed in the middle of the night? Yes, we should have."

Hermione carefully cast a few spells to see if the place was magically protected against breaking and entering. It wasn't.

She was just desperate enough to make her willing to break the law. Hermione hated doing it, but she understood that sometimes rules and laws needed to be broken in order to get things done. She'd always understood this, but it didn't mean that she had to like it. Laws maintained order when adhered to in general but there were extenuating exceptions to every rule.

While Hermione debated the best way to break in – Apparate herself inside and hope that no one saw her disappear from the empty street, go around back and hope to find a door left unlocked or a latched window, or any number of other, non-destructive scenarios – Draco stood beside her with as much patience as he had for anything. He lasted a whole second before he rolled his eyes, wound his sleeve around his fist and punched the glass that made up the top half of the shop door.

"Draco!" Hermione snapped. It was unlikely that there was a Muggle alarm hooked up in the shop since it was owned by magic users, but it had still been a risk to so blatantly shatter a window on a public street. Even if it was the middle of the night and the street appeared empty, it was possible that someone was watching from a window somewhere, or that the sound would draw the attention of a well-meaning citizen.

"Calm down, Granger. We're in a hurry." He reached through the broken window and unlocked the door from the inside. Draco dragged her into the shop, their shoes crunching on the broken glass. He used his wand to repair the window once they were safely in the building. "There, now no one will see that I broke the window."

She would have stayed to scold him, but there were more pressing matters at hand.

Hermione stopped in front of the wall of fish tanks, taking a moment to figure out how in the world the girl had opened the wall of tanks before. The catch was well hidden between two tanks, not too difficult to find, yet still small enough and tucked away in a manner that would make it unlikely that someone would accidentally touch it.

She pushed the latch and the front of the tanks swung out, leaving the water there waiting for them to pass.

Apparently there was another button that needed to be pushed in order to keep people dry as they walked through the water. Hermione and Draco were both dripping wet then they emerged from the other side.

They both immediately wrinkled their nose at the horrible smell. Before, the caves had smelt mostly of wet stone with hints of sickness, but now the scent of illness and death. Hermione covered her nose with a hand, her eyes watering. She cast a spell that filtered the air for them as they breathed. It wasn't perfect and some of the smell still lingered, but it was no longer choking.

"I have the feeling that there aren't many snakes down there," Draco said.

She nodded grimly. Still, she pushed forward towards the stairs after they dried themselves off with their wands.

Draco wasn't happy. Fortunately, he seemed to know better than to voice his displeasure. Hermione would hate to have to hex him and then have him at anything less than top fighting form once they arrived at the nest of possibly hostile magical creatures below them.

The trip down the stairs seemed to stretch even longer than it had been last time. Hermione tried to rush but was wary of slipping on the rough-cut stone partially obscured by the darkness. Cassy wouldn't be helped if her rescuers broke their necks on the way down to her.

When they reached the bottom and cast the necessary spells to light up the cavern, they were met with an unpleasant but not entirely unexpected sight. No longer was the cave filled with snake women. There were only a few piles of rotted remains to mark the unique species that had flourished there not so long ago.

Draco's face was twisted up in disgust. The smell was much stronger down at the source, and the sights to accompany it weren't any more pleasant than their scent.

"Have we considered the possibility of contracting this illness ourselves?" Draco asked as he paced the perimeter of the cave, just to be sure that there was absolutely no sign that Cassy wasn't there. He knew his partner would refuse to leave unless they'd thoroughly scoured the place.

"I've thought about it, but it's unlikely." Hermione was using briskness to cover her sadness. "No fully human creature has been infected so far. I think it may have something to do with the way partial human bodies are combined with other creatures that really allows the disease to take."

It was just a theory, of course, but Hermione had been thinking on it for as long as they'd been investigating the case. Contracting the illness themselves was always a concern. She wasn't going to let it stop her from helping the creatures, though. Someone needed to do something, and if not her, then who?

So far, they weren't even positive on the symptoms of the illness. From the few known details in the file, the illness seemed to present itself differently in different beings. In the case of the Daughters of Echidna, the sickness had been virtually symptomless until they dropped dead. The women would slow down, much like snakes when exposed to cold temperatures, except instead of hibernating, the snake women simply died.

When Hermione was done staring at the various corpses with sadness, she followed Draco's example and started scouring the cavern with her partner. Together, it didn't take them long to cover the entire cave.

"She's not here," Hermione said sadly. The hope had been small, but she's still allowed herself to hope. Now she was once again back to square one.

"No sense lingering then." Draco's hand in the middle of her back encouraged her towards the stairs. She didn't resist. She was just as eager to get out of there as him, but her feet didn't seem to want to move.

Halfway up the stairs, she wiped irritably at a tear that escaped.

"The girl or all the death?" Draco asked from behind her.

She didn't pretend that she had no idea what he was talking about; he deserved more credit than that. "There was nothing we could do for those women. They wouldn't even let anyone down there to help ease their suffering. I still feel like I failed them somehow, though."

"You're such a Gryffindor, Granger. There's nothing you could have done for them that you're not already doing."

They reached the top of the stairs, where Draco had the room to stand beside her and put a comforting arm around her shoulders. "There's nothing else we can do tonight. I vote we go back to bed and tackle this mess of a problem in the morning."

"How can you think about bed at a time like-" she was cut off when Draco kissed her. It was really more of a quick peck than a proper kiss, but it served its purpose of getting her to stop talking.

"One: I'm always thinking about ways to get you into bed." He put a finger on her lips to keep her from interrupting. "Two: We're both bloody tired, probably nearing complete exhaustion and are going to be useless come morning if we don't get some rest."

Hermione sighed and leaned against him for a moment before pulling away and heading towards the wall of fish tanks. She didn't say anything, but they both knew that her acquiescence was an acknowledgement that he was right.

The pet store, when they emerged inside it once more, was just as they had left it; perfectly silent and completely dark. Outside the window, the streets were still empty and peaceful.

Hermione and Draco slipped out of the shop. Thankfully, the lock on the door allowed it to be locked from the inside, remaining locked after it was closed. Otherwise, they may have been forced to leave the shop unlocked for the night.

Squinting down the street, Draco stared hard. "Did you see something move down there?"

She had been staring back at the shop, making sure that there was no evidence of their little breaking and entering stunt. Just because the shop happened to sit over the former cave of the snake women didn't mean they should suffer for it. Hermione was going to make sure to send the store a muffin basket or something. There may not be any evidence of their lawbreaking, but she still felt the need to atone for it – later, of course.

"Nothing," she said, starting to understand what Draco meant about their exhaustion. Now that her adrenalin and certainty that she was going to find Cassy with the snake women had faded, she was really starting to feel how tired she was.

"I'm going to look into it."

Hermione started to follow, but Draco shook his head at her. "I'm sure it's nothing I can't handle. You find somewhere hidden away so we can Apparate."

"That's not how a partnership works and you know it."

"Granger, I want to sleep. We'll be out of here so much faster if we split up. I'll be just down the street, what could possibly happen to me?"

She didn't even want to contemplate the myriad of things that could happen to him just down the street from her. Just because she was near didn't prevent the same people who took Cassy from hurting him, or worse, killing him.

"I don't think that's a good-" Draco had turned and was already halfway down the alley. "Idea," she finished with an exasperated sigh.

Resigned, Hermione looked around for a good place for them to hide so they could Apparate.

Just as Hermione was about to step into a likely-looking alleyway, a hand shot out of the alley's darkness and yanked her out of the meager light provided by the lamps spaced along the storefronts. Whoever it was that had grabbed her pressed her up against the wall. Her eyes were having difficulty making out the figure, but she could tell that whoever it was, they weren't much taller than she was herself. Hermione wasn't very worried, she had fought more dangerous adversaries under worse circumstances, and Draco wouldn't take long to find her.

She was just about to aim a nasty kick at her attacker's shin when something cold and metal pressed against her temple. Her entire body went completely still as she reassessed her surroundings. Hermione didn't have much experience with guns, but she certainly knew enough to recognise one when it was aimed at her head.

The alley was abruptly lit up in harsh light when Draco rushed onto the scene. "What the hell is going on here?"

Having been raised a Pureblood, Draco's exposure to the Muggle world was limited and his knowledge of guns was nonexistent. From the situation, he was able to figure out that it was some type of weapon and from Hermione's expression he easily discerned that his partner's life was in danger.

The woman pinning Hermione to the wall glanced over her shoulder to snarl at Draco. "One wrong move and I put a bullet in her brain."

Draco froze, his wand still lit and held in front of him. His eyes snapped to his partner's. She was the one who knew all about the thing pressed to her skull. Sure, he could use his wand and disarm the Muggle woman in a flash, but he wasn't sure how quick she'd be able to use that metal thing pressed to Granger's head and wasn't willing to risk her death.

There was something scarier about being at the end of a gun than there was about being on the end of a wand. While magic was capable of healing and any number of positive things, guns really only had one purpose and it wasn't one that boded well for Hermione.

Still, Hermione managed to keep herself together. "What do you want?" If it was money, the woman was out of luck. Neither Hermione nor Draco had any on them. They'd left it at the Manor when they went to pick up their swords and kits.

"I want my daughter." She accentuated her statement by twisting the gun a little, grinding the metal into Hermione's poor head.

Startled – by the words, not the pain in her head – Hermione took a second look at the woman. Her hair wasn't the blonde curls that Cassy's was, but her eyes were the same; large and bright with a fringe of dark lashes. There was a hardness in this woman that Cassy, an innocent child, just didn't possess.

Despite the gun to her head, Hermione felt sorry for the woman. Her eyes were hard but not violent. It took something truly horrible, like the abduction of a child, to make someone as non-violent as she suspected this woman to be desperate enough to grind guns into the heads of strangers.

It was Draco who answered the woman. "We don't have her."

"Of course you do, I saw it."

Eyebrows drawn together, Hermione tried to figure out when the woman could have seen them with Cassy. More importantly, if the woman had seen them with her daughter, why hadn't she said something and taken Cassy back with her. What they needed was to have a civilized conversation without a gun pressed to anyone's head.

"We'll explain," Hermione said in the most soothing voice she could muster considering the circumstances, "If you'd just put the gun down, we can explain everything." She ignored Draco's warning expression. He didn't trust the woman, but he didn't trust many people so she didn't take it to heart.

"I'm not stupid," the woman spat. "If I'm putting the gun down, I want both your wands on the ground with it."

Hermione and Draco weren't really surprised that the Muggle woman knew about their wands. If she had been watching them as she claimed, then she must have seen them using magic on multiple occasions. Just moments ago Draco had burst into the alley with the tip of his wand lit, so even if she hadn't known about magic before, she certainly did now.

Apparently the swords that both of them had strapped to their hips weren't as much of a concern.

"Fine." Slowly, because a clearly desperate woman had a gun to her head and everything, Hermione pulled her wand from her pocket and dropped it on the ground. She even kicked it down the alley a little so that she wouldn't be able to easily pick it up again. If worse came to worse, she'd still have wandless magic and her sword.

Both women turned their stares on Draco until he did the same. He glared the whole time and didn't even bother to mutter his stream of curse words, but he did it.

Only when Draco's wand was also on the ground did the woman finally lower the gun. She watched them distrustfully for a moment, seeming to check them over for spare wands. Apparently the swords still weren't a concern. Maybe Muggles were so focused on guns that they no longer thought swords a threat. Finally, she threw the gun to the ground and nudged it away from her with her toes, just as Hermione and Draco had with their wands.

Left without her weapon and outnumbered, the woman crossed her arms over her chest. She was less threatening this way, and it became apparent that she was more scared than she had wanted them to think. Her hands had been shaking before she tucked them under her arms and her eyes kept shooting to the sky, searching for some unknown enemy.

Hermione chanced a glance up there, wondering if the woman was expecting an attack from the rooftops. There was no one up there.

"We found Cassy in the den of snake women under this pet store," Hermione started, watching closely so that she would catch any flash of surprise in the woman's eyes. So far, nothing. "The Daughters of Echidna told us that someone didn't want Cassy alive. That they were supposed to eat her."

The woman paled slightly, but she still didn't appear as if she was being given new information.

When the woman didn't offer any response, Hermione continued. She tried to pick words to soften the situation, but there really wasn't anything she could do. "We didn't know who was out to get her so we took her to a safe house. A safe house from which someone abducted her, severely injuring the man there to keep her safe."

With this news, the remaining fight drained from the woman. She leaned against the dirty wall of the alley, sliding down it until she was resting on the dirty ground. "He has her again," she said brokenly, more to herself than her audience.

Hermione crouched down beside her and rested a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her. "Who has her?"

The woman tilted her head slightly to look at Hermione through the tears that had accumulated there. She was suddenly hopeless. "Apollo. Apollo has my daughter."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

**A/N: Hello readers! Another chapter! I'm almost positive it's been more than a week since I last posted. Sorry about that. I kind of forgot...**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed and to irianaceleste for betaing!**

**~Frosty**

Guns and wands restored to their hiding places, Hermione and Draco sat opposite Cassy's mother, who insisted that they call her Daisy, in an all-night restaurant. It just seemed wrong to let her sit on the ground in a dirty alley while she had been shaking and fighting off tears over the kidnapping of her daughter.

Draco was the one to mumble, "If we're going to be staying up all night, I'm going to have to drink some of that bloody caffeinated sludge."

His hands were now wrapped around a steaming mug of said sludge. He'd taken a few sips while staring out the window, but eventually decided that choking it down wasn't worth the little bit of caffeine.

"I'm not exactly here for the ambiance of this run-down cafe," he said impatiently. "Tell us your story so we can all get some rest."

Hermione shot him a look of reproach for being so rude, but Draco ignored it.

Daisy, who had been staring out the window with an attitude similar to that of a hunted animal, didn't seem very offended anyway. In fact, she almost seemed to appreciate his bluntness.

Besides the waitress sitting at the front counter, half-asleep, they were the only ones in the cafe, and so we free to speak without fear of being overheard.

"I've always been able to see things," Daisy explained as she sipped at her own coffee. "But I've never been very good at it. I can see maybe two days into the future if I'm lucky, and it's almost never helpful images. It was a stroke of luck to see you two coming out of that pet store after seeing a flash of the two of you with Cassy. I just happened to know where that pet store was and staked out the place until I saw you."

"How exactly does Apollo come into this story?" Hermione asked since her partner was clearly uncomfortable with the way Daisy's eyes kept clouding over with tears when she talked about her missing daughter.

Daisy sighed. "I'm not much of one, but I'm still a seer. As such, I'm under his authority. He thought that meant that I'd sleep with him without question, but I have Cassy and don't want gods having anything to do with her life. I've read the stories and know the trouble they cause."

Hermione had read the stories as well. Apollo had never had much luck with women, despite being a god. He always seemed to get rejected. For someone with such a large ego, Hermione understood how this didn't go over well. After all, Apollo had been the one to make it so that despite her accurate visions, no one would believe poor Cassandra. And all of this just because she wouldn't have sex with him.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," Hermione said, genuinely sympathetic about the bad hand fate had dealt this woman. "And don't worry; we're going to find your daughter."

Daisy was unimpressed by Hermione's promise. She was too polite to say anything, but she may as well have. Her thoughts were clear on her expressive face. "I'm not going to sit on the sidelines and let you magical people ruin everything I've worked for. I'm going to help with the search for my daughter. You people lost her once; I'm not going to let you lose her again."

Poised to say something that would probably make an enemy of Daisy, Draco flinched when Hermione kicked him under the table. She spoke over his grunt of pain, knowing that they couldn't afford to chase Daisy off to try and take on the gods on her own.

"It's against Ministry policy to allow civilians – especially ones without magic of their own – to come along on investigations such as this." Hermione didn't bother mentioning that those were Auror rules. They were actually breaking a few laws just by sitting down and talking about the Ministry with a Muggle,

Daisy didn't need to know that, or that they were breaking protocol on top of laws by going in alone against Auror wishes to try and find Cassy. They would be in enough trouble as it was if they were ever caught. If they hadn't been uniquely qualified for the job, Hermione wouldn't even be risking the time in Azkaban.

At least she and Draco knew about the gods, something that gave them an advantage over the Aurors, who would be going in to a quarrel beyond their understanding completely blind to what was happening. Really, they were protecting the Aurors while giving Cassy a better chance of being found.

Like any good mother, Daisy wasn't easily swayed to leave her child's safety in the hands of someone else. "You can argue with me all you want, but I've already seen that you're going to allow me along."

As a child without a wand, it had been easy enough to assume that the little girl in a cave of magical creatures under a magical shop, but her mother was another story. If Hermione and Draco took her to the Ministry for protection, her memory would be erased and she'd probably be sent right back home, especially since the divine threat against her wasn't one that the Ministry recognised.

Both thinking the same thing, Hermione and Draco shared a look. Taking on people in need of protection wasn't something their job entailed – in fact, they could lose their jobs for doing such a thing. Yet it looked like they were about to take on their second target of gods in a very short period of time.

"We can take her to the Manor," Draco murmured, leaning close to Hermione so that Daisy couldn't hear. "Our safe house has been compromised already – not that any mortal magic can keep out the gods anyway. She'd be as safe there as anywhere else."

They both turned to the woman staring at them with slight distrust.

"Daisy, have you ever heard of Disapparation?" Hermione asked while Draco went up to the front counter to pay for their coffees.

The Muggle woman was understandably wary about Apparting. She'd been so scared during the actual process that Hermione had several crescent-shaped puncture marks in her arm from where Daisy had gripped.

"That'll happen the first few times," Draco said as Daisy threw up in the bushed lining the Manor's front gate. "You don't really get used to it, but you get better at keeping the food down." He was already through the gate and halfway to the Manor by the time Daist stood up straight, wiping her mouth.

"Is he always so..."

"Unpleasant?" Hermione finished for her. "He's short on sleep right now and it's been a hard day for all of us. But, yes, surly and rude is his natural state."

* * *

Daisy, someone who had spent a lot of time avoiding a god and his dangerous magic, was understandably distrustful of Draco and Hermione. She'd had an especially difficult time getting over her introduction to the Manor's House Elves. Hermione was sure the poor elves' ears would recover from Daisy's high-pitched screech eventually.

Over breakfast the next morning, Hermione kept an eye on Daisy. She was a little worried about the other woman.

Daisy though, was preoccupied with staring out the window. When a crow landed on a tree out on the grounds, she very nearly dove under the table.

"He's looking for you with the crows, isn't he?" Hermione asked.

Eyes never leaving the view of the grounds, Daisy nodded. "They're his spies. I don't think he know I'm here though, so he's probably spying on you two as well."

"You knew this, Granger?"

Hermione frowned at Draco's annoyed tone. "Crows are known to be associated with Apollo. According to legend, they've worked as his spies for a long time. I tried to tell you, but you told me to be quiet."

Nibbling at her breakfast, Hermione watched Draco remember that he had in fact prevented her from explaining her theory about the crows.

"I wrote to the Auror department last night and they told me that Auror Smith is still in the hospital." Hermione said crisply. "I'm going to pay him a quick visit this morning to see if he remembers anything more about his attackers."

"Why would you do that?" Daisy demanded. She was clearly eager to get out there and scour the countryside for any sign of her daughter.

"Someone attacked him to kidnap Cassy, and I doubt it was Apollo because he survived the attack. I want to question Smith to see if he remembers anything more about his attackers. If we can find whoever's working with Apollo, they might lead us to your daughter."

"I'm not going," Draco said. Hospitals were horrible enough without the addition of that wanker Smith. It wasn't like Granger needed backup there, so he was perfectly happy to stay at the Manor and allow her to do the questioning. In fact, his presence would probably only impede her questioning. It was almost guaranteed that Draco would lose his temper and say something that either got them kicked out of the hospital or offended Smith enough to make the man clam up and stop answering questions.

She could tell that her partner wasn't exactly pleased with her visiting Smith, but he understood the necessity. As a reward for his understanding, she leaned down and gave him a kiss on her way out of the room.

"Keep an eye on Daisy," she whispered before pulling away from him.

* * *

Sometimes it amused Hermione to watch the way the hospital staff tensed up at her presence, only to relax again when they realized that Draco wasn't following behind her with a scowl. The rest of the time their attitude just served as a reminder that Draco still had unresolved issues. She hoped his promise to try and behave better while in St. Mungo's would hold.

Auror Smith wasn't in the same kind of room as Draco was usually placed in. For the safety of himself but mostly the other patients, Draco was always given a single room. It helped that his mother had donated a children's wing to the hospital after the war. Hermione suspected that this was a heavily weighing factor in the hospital's decision to continue to heal Draco despite his horrible behaviour.

Smith appeared to be asleep on the bed, but the man in the second bed in the room mouthed 'he's faking.' She thanked him with a smile and yanked the curtain the divided the room closed to give them what minimal privacy it provided.

"Smith," she said, "I have some questions for you and would really appreciate if you'd stop feigning sleep and answer them."

With a sigh, he opened his eyes. "I was hoping to get a little more sleep, but if you insist." He then looked at her expectantly, waiting for the questions.

Caught in his gaze for a moment, Hermione mentally fumbled for the questions she'd wanted to ask. Had Smith always had such a mesmerizing stare?

That wasn't right.

Hermione furrowed her brows and tried to sort out why she was suddenly so attracted to someone who had been so unappealing to her in the past. She shook her head and forced herself to asked questions.

"Have you remembered any more details about the people who attacked you?"

He pursed his lips and tapped a finger against them, drawing her attention to her mouth. Not even Draco had ever managed to have her so completely transfixed with just one simple movement, and she loved him! Smith didn't even have nice lips. They were much too thin, making his mouth just a slash in his face, especially when he had them all pressed together in annoyance. Still, she couldn't look away.

Hermione knew that something was horrible wrong when not even the thought of the man she loved did anything to dispel her sudden strange lust. Unfortunately, the knowledge that something was wrong did nothing to dispel her fascination with the Auror in the hospital bed.

Once he was sure that her attention was where he wanted it, Smith spoke, "I can't say anything else comes to mind."

"That's unfortunate," Hermione murmured. Was she leaning towards Smith? What in the world was happening?

* * *

Bored, Draco lounged in one of the Manor's larger sitting rooms while Daisy sat in a chair with her eyes closed, desperately trying to have a vision that would give her a hint as to her daughter's location. He knew it was futile to try and force a vision, and the seer had to know this as well. Since trying made the woman feel like she was doing something for her daughter and stopped her from being teary and desperate, so he allowed it without comment.

He tilted his head back and stared up at the ceiling, wondering how Granger was faring with her questions. Not well, he imagined. There was something off with Smith.

Daisy gasped and turned to stare at Draco with huge eyes just as a House Elf popped into the room.

"There is a Smelly Potter here to see Miss Hermione," the elf said.

"I told you not to call him Smelly Potter anymore. If Granger hears, she's going to kill me."

The elf bowed her head and twisted her hands nervously. "Loopy will punish herself immediately."

"Not necessary," Draco said quickly. There was an annoying little voice in his head the sounded suspiciously like Granger yelling at him at the mere suggestion of his House Elves punishing themselves. "Send Potter in, I'll see what he wants."

The elf nodded and disappeared, making Daisy jump once more. She was used to associating with immortal deities, but a little elf with the habit of suddenly disappearing and reappearing was something to be alarmed about. Draco would never understand Muggles.

Speaking of Daisy... He looked over to the woman, who was still looking at him with those wide eyes of hers.

"What?" he snapped, irritated that she hadn't just said what was on her mind and needed to be prompted. She was too meek, unlike Granger, who would tell him exactly what she wanted to. Draco hated meek people. They couldn't speak their minds and were forever taking offense at the things he said, even when he was just being honest.

"Your girlfriend and that Auror..." She paused, clearly trying to think of a way to phrase what she was trying to say. Maybe it wasn't that she was meek and just that she didn't want to say what she had to tell him. "I didn't see my daughter, but I had a vision... You need to get to the hospital."

Not needed to be told twice, Draco jumped from his seat. When someone who saw the future – even as imperfectly as Daisy – told you to be somewhere, you went. He passed Potter in the hallway.

"Granger's not here, wait in the sitting room," Draco called out as he passed the other man. "The kid's mum is in there, maybe you can get some information from her." He wasn't really trying to be helpful, but Granger had probably intended that Draco watch Daisy and would be miffed if she returned to find that Daisy had been left by herself with the House Elves that made her so nervous.

* * *

Hermione wasn't like Harry, with an iron will that could resist the Imperius curse, but she was plenty stubborn. Usually, that would be enough resist almost any temptation, but Smith inspired something in her that there was no resisting. Her eyes wouldn't even move away from him no matter how hard she tried.

She was definitely leaning towards Smith. It was like he was a magnet and she was unable to get her body to stop dragging towards him. Her breathing was quicker than usual and her hands itched to touch him. Hermione had been attracted to men before, but never had her lust been so all-consuming without even touching them.

It was strange though that her thoughts were still perfectly clear. Draco could make it difficult for her to think coherently, but this lust didn't do that. It was like it was only affecting her body while in her mind she was free to uselessly fight against whatever had a hold on her.

She fought valiantly, but her brain just couldn't win against the press of her body's wants.

In transfiguration, there was always one student who thought that the animals there to be changed into inanimate objects were for their cruel amusement. Changing a bird into a throw pillow made it hard to understand that the bird was alive.

Once, Hermione had saved a bird from her one of her fellow classmates who watched with rapt attention while a scared bird battered its wings against the bars of a shrunken cage. As he watched her, Smith had the same look that her classmate had worn while watching the bird struggle.

Hermione was the bird.

"What's wrong, Granger, finally scared of me?" he asked when she was so close that their lips brushed as he spoke. His eyes were filled with the cruelty that before he'd only allowed her glimpses of.

She was unable to answer.

Kissing the man was almost a relief at first, but it quickly became clear that the kiss wasn't enough. She climbed into the bed, straddling his hips as she pressed her breasts against his chest and buried his hands in his hair. They needed to be as close as possible.

* * *

Draco was briefly stalled at the Healer's station when the woman behind the desk refused to tell him where Auror Smith was roomed. If he had been more polite in the past, she probably would have been more willing to divulge the information. Unfortunately, his reputation proceeded him. She probably thought that he was there to stab Smith, possibly light him on fire.

Luckily, Draco had brought his coin pouch with him and the Healer behind the counter was willing to forget her grudge for a small fee.

He raced through the halls, worried that something could be wrong with Granger. Smith had acted strange and spoke out against Granger in the past, what if he'd done something to his partner?

When he finally found the room number, he stopped and looking inside before just bursting in. Fingering his wand, he leaned to the side get a look in the room through the window. There was a curtain drawn to divide the room, but Draco could see Smith through a crack in the curtains.

Granger was on top of him in what was clearly a consensual embrace on the surface.

His fists clenched as he watched, getting more and more furious. Something wasn't right. Granger didn't even like Smith, but if he went in there, he'd be sure to kill the injured Auror. Remembering his promise to avoid scenes in the hospital, Draco held himself back and watched even though it tore himself up to do nothing.

* * *

As abruptly as the kiss had started, the strange compulsion that made Hermione attracted to Smith disappeared and she was free to start thinking with her brain against instead of her hormones.

After a kiss like that with Draco, she would have felt hot and bothered, but that certainly wasn't what she feeling just then. Hermione was almost certain that she was going to vomit. She shoved herself off of Smith so quickly that she nearly fell onto her butt, only managing to catch herself at the last minute.

Breathing heavily and red faced, she glared at the smug looking Smith. "What did you just do to me?"

He grinned. "Exactly what I was told to do."

Hermione punched him.

* * *

"Good girl," Draco muttered out in the corridor. His partner was on the warpath, right where Draco wanted to be.

If he was in the same building as Smith for any longer, he was definitely going to create the scene that Granger feared he would. Killing an Auror would not only get him permanently banned from the hospital, it would get him thrown in Azkaban.

Abruptly, Draco turned away from the scene in the hospital room and headed towards the exit. He needed a drink.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

**A/N: Hello readers! I'm late, I know. Sorry, I suck. **

**If any of you are curious, I was watching Grey's Anatomy (the two hour premier) last week and wrote the most depressing one shot (only 1000 words) ever. It's called "The First Light of Morning" and I'm frostykitten on fictionpress as well. It's here (without the spaces):**

** s/3156013**

**I'll put a link in my profile as well because I'm having a fight to keep the spaced out url here. If you want to review while you're there, it would make me happy.**

**As always, thanks to irianaceleste for betaing and to all the wonderful people who reviewed!**

**~Frosty**

Hermione rushed back to the Manor furious for a number of reasons. Apparently punching a patient will get you kicked out of the hospital. The staff of St. Mungo's hadn't cared a whit that she was a war hero, just threw her out like she was common trash. She was willing to bet that no one would even look into her claims that some kind of lust spell had been cast on her, whether by Aphrodite or one of the hospitals staff, she couldn't know for sure.

Back in the Manor, she stormed to the sitting room, needing to tell Draco what had happened. Unlike the hospital staff, he would understand and share her anger. She felt dirty after what had happened with Smith. It wasn't logical, but she felt like a kiss from Draco would make the horrible thing that had happened to her just a little bit better.

Instead of Draco in the sitting room with Daisy, she found Harry staring at the seer while the woman squished her eyes closed.

Harry was on his feet the moment he saw his friend's expression. "What's wrong, Hermione?"

"Where's Draco?" she asked before explaining. Hermione didn't want Draco wandering in at the wrong moment and hearing what had happened with Smith before she'd had time to preface the bad news with some sort of explanation.

"He went to the hospital to find you."

Hermione paled. "When was this?"

"Ten minutes?" Harry said, with a glance at Daisy for conformation. Having opened her eyes to look at Hermione, Daisy nodded her confirmation at Harry.

Starting to suspect that she knew why her compulsion to kiss Smith had suddenly disappeared, Hermione had to sit. The thought that Draco had seen her kissing another man and the conclusions he must have drawn made her knees suddenly incapable of holding her weight. If the tables were turned and it was her who saw him pressed up against another woman, she would have felt terrible.

"Hermione, what happened?" Harry was starting to look really concerned. He sat down beside his friend and laid a hand on her shoulder, trying to offer her strength.

"I kissed Smith," Hermione said quickly, like ripping off a plaster. It didn't make her feel any less horrible about it. "I felt like something was making me do it." She went on to describe exactly what it had felt like

"It was the interference of the gods," Daisy said wisely. "That's the only way to override free will so completely."

With no knowledge of mortal magic, Daisy wasn't aware of the Imperius curse, but her explanation still seemed to fit. Hermione hadn't felt like she was under the Imperius curse while she'd been with Smith. It had just felt like an uncontrollable lust for Auror Smith.

Harry looked at Hermione. "What's she talking about? Gods?"

Hermione was torn. She had a feeling that she was going to need Harry's help finding Cassy, especially since Draco had disappeared for the moment, but she knew that telling him everything would put him in danger. She hated putting her friends in unnecessary danger.

Before Hermione could come to a decision, Daisy answered for her. "Your friends seem to have angered a god." At Harry's blank look, she elaborated, "The Greek gods are very much real. Did you not know?"

Harry was sharp; he didn't have such a successful career as an Auror because he forgot details. "Does the statue in Malfoy's back garden have something to do with these gods?" Hermione could see in his eyes that he was thinking hard, going over recent events in his mind and trying to find things that were slightly out of place that could be attributed to the divine.

Hermione put her fingers on her temples and tried to rub away the headache that was starting to develop. "Harry, trust me that you're safer knowing as little about this as possible." She shot a reproachful look at Daisy for just blurting out such an important secret like it was nothing.

Raising her chin, Daisy was defiant. She clearly thought Harry needed to know.

"What do you know?" Hermione demanded of the woman. Perhaps the seer knew something that Hermione didn't about Harry.

"You're going to need your friend here. You should tell him everything." Her piece said, Daisy stood to leave. "Just make it quick, you're wasting time that could be used to find my daughter."

Harry rounded on his friend as soon as they were alone. "Hermione, you have to tell me everything."

"Remember that really strange lizard we found in Egypt, the one that talked and caused all kinds of trouble?" Harry nodded. "He was Eros, god of love."

From there, she told him everything that had happened, everything he had known at one point and forgotten, and everything that had happened after his and Ron's memories were erased. Harry was, of course, skeptical at first, but Hermione had never deceived him before and he had no reason to doubt her.

When she was finished Harry just sat there, absorbing everything he had been told. "You and Malfoy have been butting heads with ancient, powerful deities for a while now, and you're still alive. I'm impressed."

"I learned growing up with you how to get the better of a very powerful foe."

"Hermione, Voldemort was strong, but he was... mostly human. Gods are something else."

"I know, I'm not delusional. I'm aware that our chances of surviving this unscathed are very slim, but I can't just stop now that we're so involved. Innocent magical creatures are dying, and now Cassy has been abducted." Her eyes darted over to meet her friend's. "Harry, it's not too late for you to leave, stay out of this mess."

"If you think I'm going to do that, then you don't know me very well."

Hermione smiled sadly. "I figured you would say that, but I had to try. Now that I've told you everything, how about you tell me why you're here."

"That's right," Harry said, sitting up a little straighter in his chair. "I came here to tell you that a Muggle _did _file a missing person's report with the Muggle police, but since you found her mother, I don't think that piece of information's going to help you at all." Hermione shook her head, agreeing with him. "The other thing I learned might be of a little more interest; there is no record of an Auror named Smith ever working at the Ministry."

* * *

It was kind of nice to do some fieldwork without Draco's constant complaints, but a larger part of Hermione ached fiercely for her partner. She missed him horribly and it had only been a few hours since she'd seen him. Her heart probably wouldn't have hurt so much if she hadn't half expected that she wasn't going to see him again – or that if she did, everything would be different.

She was almost certain that Draco had seen her with Smith, yet he'd left instead of confronting either her or Smith. Hermione knew Draco well, which meant she also knew that Draco should have reacted with anger first and stormed the room. The fact that he hadn't meant either he didn't care as much as he'd been saying, something she doubted, or that something else was going on with him.

Harry was at her side, he had been in a daze ever since she'd shared the truth with him. He seemed to be questioning everything he had ever known. Hermione just hadn't had the heart to tell him that his memory had been erased the last time he'd found out something about gods.

Last time, Eros had been heavily involved in their survival of the whole divine mess. He'd also been involved in a lot of their danger, but that was beside the point. Hermione was worried enough about their current situation that she almost wished that Eros would show up once again. They could use the help. Eros though, was busy making up with his wife and probably wouldn't be directly involved with mortals for a long while.

"How are we supposed to find this oracle?" Daisy demanded. She didn't seem to think finding another seer would help their situation at all, especially a priestess of the temple of Apollo, but Hermione was adamant that they continue their search for the Pythia.

"She's around here somewhere," Hermione answered. They were on their fourth gelato shop in Athens and hadn't seen any sign of the priestess of Apollo. Hermione was optimistic though, she was one of their only leads and she wasn't yet willing to give up hope. Besides, how many gelato shops could there possibly be in one city?

"She's not in this one either," Harry said after scanning the crowded little shop.

Taking out the map of Athens Hermione had bought from a tourist shop, Hermione crossed off one more gelato serving venue.

"I would have thought that you magical people would be more... efficient with this search," Daisy said as they walked to gelato shop number five.

"Nope. Sometimes it take good old fashioned detective work." Hermione stopped in front of ship number five and scanned the small patio of customers – mostly tourists – hiding from the hot sun under large white umbrellas that stretched to cover almost the whole patio.

One woman stood out slightly from the others, she had a faint glow about her. Not a glow as obvious as the one that Hermione had seen surrounding gods, this woman's glow at first looked like a trick of the light, but once Hermione noticed, it was clearly something more. The sunlight that landed on her was just a touch brighter, as if the sunlight was happy to be surrounding her.

Daisy noticed as well, she followed Hermione towards the glowing woman, her expression made it clear that she knew there was something abnormal about this person. Of course, while Hermione was hopeful, Daisy was distrustful of someone so closely associated with the cause of all her problems.

"Pythia?" Hermione asked hesitantly. She didn't want to draw too much attention to herself if she was wrong. It would work against her to alert the priestess that someone was looking for her and then have her run.

The woman looked up and lowered the pair of large designer glasses that had been perched on her nose. She was quite beautiful, with wide green eyes, waterfall of shiny black curls and flawless olive skin. Hermione could see why Apollo would find her appealing for an oracle; everyone knew that the gods were fond of pretty things.

"Can't you people give me a few minutes of peace? I'm mid gelato binge right now. And don't call me Pythia, people might hear! My name is Effie."

The temple hadn't looked well-travelled when Hermione and Draco had explored it, so she probably hadn't been bothered all that much in there, but Hermione didn't object. After all, they wanted this woman's help, not to make an enemy out of her. Hermione was kind of glad that Draco wasn't there to say something like, "_From the way you're shovelling that gelato down your throat, it's not peace you need, but a zoo exhibit."_It was a little worrying that there was a Draco part of her mind whispering the insults that he wasn't there to say.

Hermione ignored her hurt about her missing partner and forced herself to address the priestess. "Effie, we're looking for a lost little girl and a psychic octopus told us that you were the one with the answer."

Effie swallowed the gelato in her mouth and frowned in distaste. "That bloody octopus is always sending people my way. He's just bitter that I predicted the whole Titanic disaster when he thought Poseidon was bluffing."

If she had been around for the sinking of the Titanic, then this woman was older than she appeared. Hermione had been under the impression that the Pythia was always mortal and only lived a mortal lifespan, but maybe something had changed since mortals had lost sight of the old gods.

Sighing, Effie pushed the empty gelato cup away from her, laying the spoon across the top of the dish with all the gravity one would expect from a religious ceremony. "Okay, if the octopus said I could help, then I'll see what I can do, but you're buying my next gelato and bottled water."

She waited expectantly, rolling her eyes when no one moved. "_Now_."

"I'll get it." Obediently, Harry rose from his seat and wove through the tourists to get to the counter.

While he did that, Effie reached into a large purse she had resting at her side and pulled out a bowl made of something shiny and black. It looked the some sort of volcanic rock polished to a blinding shine only exacerbated by the way the sunlight clung to Effie.

"Normally, I wouldn't help you so casually – there's a specific process to this whole thing – but I'm willing to do this so that you'll leave me to my wallowing." She heaved a huge sigh and gloomily rested her chin on her hand, her other hand fiddling with the bowl waiting in front of her.

"Are you... okay?" Hermione asked hesitantly.

Effie sighed morosely. "Let's just say that being a chaste priestess doesn't mean I'm safe from heartbreak. I can't tell you more than that."

Harry returned then with the gelato and Effie perked up a little, shoving a big bite into her mouth. She had some kind of superpowers to eat so much of the frozen treat so quickly without suffering from brain freeze. Maybe that was one of the gifts from Apollo for dedicating her life to him, well, that and the ability to eat alarming amounts of gelato while keeping a trim figure.

Once her mouth was full, Effie cracked open the water bottle, dumped half of it into the shiny black bowl, and then dipped a finger into the water. She rubbed her finger around the rim of the bowl. Hermione half expected it to ring like crystal, but nothing seemed to happen; Effie just stared into the bowl as she continued to work through the huge bite of gelato in her mouth.

"Gods, I look terrible," Effie groaned once she'd swallowed, making it clear that she'd been staring at her reflection instead of trying to divine the future as they had thought. "No wonder he doesn't want me."

"I'm sure your depression is a tragedy and everything, but we need to find my daughter." Daisy's voice was all sympathy and didn't match her words.

Looking up, Effie stared hard at the other woman. "You're a seer, why not divine for yourself."

"I'm not a very good one."

"I'll see what I can do, but I make no guarantees," Effie said after examining Daisy for a while longer. Hermione wasn't sure how strong her power was, if Effie was reading Daisy's future or just reading her face, but there must have been something there that she liked.

"We want to know where Apollo is," Hermione said.

Immediately, Effie's face shut down. She didn't even glace towards the bowl. "I swore my loyalty to him a long time ago. He's everything to me, why would you think that I'd betray him?"

"We think he has my daughter," Daisy said. "We don't want anything to do with him; we just want my daughter back."

Sighing, Effie stared into the bowl for a second and then shook her head. "He's not who you want to find; he's not the one at the root of your problems."

"We just want my daughter back," Daisy snapped.

A sharp shriek drew Effie's attention to the other side of the street where a pair of crows were watching their group. Daisy practically threw herself under the table in her hurry to get out of their line of sight, but it was no use.

One of the crows flew over and landed on their table, right by Effie's elbow. Surprisingly, none of the other customers on the patio paid it any mind.

Effie wasn't in the least surprised by the bird's presence. In fact, she glared at it with an irritated resignation as if encounters such as this were an everyday thing for her.

"I'm not going back," Effie told it sternly, sparing Daisy a curious look.

The crow puffed up its feathers and screeched at her.

"I don't care if he's getting antsy that his pet priestess has gone missing. I'm going to eat gelato until I feel better and he's not going to stop me. I'm done being a pet."

Its head cocked to the side and it pecked at the table.

"You're a shameless extortionist." Even while she said that, Effie fished around in her pocket and came out with a handful of nuts and a broken but shiny charm from a bracelet. "There. For that much, you had better tell him you can't find me for the next week."

The crow ate the nuts, picked up the charm, and flew back to join the other bird.

Effie leaned down and looked at Daisy under the table. "Judging by your reaction to the crows, I'm going to assume that you're one of the women who resisted him. You can come out now, those two are my personal entourage. They're not interested in you, only in following me around spying on everything I do." She glared up at the birds. "Bribes usually work to keep them from giving me away, but they take advantage."

Slowly, with many distrustful glances towards the crows, Daisy came out from under the table and took her seat once more.

Effie turned slightly to include Hermione and Harry in the conversation once more. "It used to be that the Pythia had a whole temple full of fellow priestesses and priests to keep her company, but me, I'm expected to sit there in that blinding temple day after day all by myself. It took a week after leaving for the spots in my eyes to fade from all the glaring brightness in there."

She didn't wait for an answer, looking down at her bowl once more before continuing. "I won't break his trust and tell you if he has her or not, but I can tell you that facing him directly won't get her back. He's been manipulated just as much as the rest of you."

Abruptly, she swiped her hand at the water, splashing it across the table before dumping the remains on the stones under their feet.

"That's all I'm going to tell you," she said, her glance towards Daisy much more hostile than it had been before. "In the future though, I advise you to be more careful about who you deceive."

"Thank you for your help," Hermione said politely. She took Daisy by the arm and led her away, worried that the sudden, unexplained hostilities between the two seers would cause a fight right there in the gelato shop.

* * *

Draco drank another shot, hating that he hadn't pounded Smith to a pulp when he saw the other man snogging _his _girlfriend. He felt like some kind of pansy even though he knew that he'd done the right thing. Draco looked around the Muggle establishment. He was drinking there because it was the last place anyone would think to look for him and he really didn't want to be found at the moment.

He hadn't done a lot of thinking immediately following the incident, but he became increasingly introspective with every new dose of alcohol. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that Granger was probably as upset about the whole thing as he was.

Had he not been so busy suppressing his rage and violent tendencies, it would have occurred to him sooner. Aphrodite was out to get them. The goddess of love was actively seeking revenge. Stealing golden does and helping in the killing of masses of magical creatures was bad enough, but interfering with their relationship was too far. It was time to start seeking some of his own revenge.

Tilting his head back and downing his last shot, Draco gestured for the bartender to come over to him.

"Do you have any wine?"


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

**A/N: Hello readers! I think it's only been a week since my last update, so this one's on time. Hooray! I haven't been doing much typing recently. Instead, I've been crocheting... I learned from youtube and am determined not to stop until I have a blanket, except my poor hands hurt.**

**As always, thanks to all of the wonderful people who reviewed and to the lovely irianaceleste for betaing.**

**~Frosty**

"Daisy, what was that the Pythia said about deceiving people?" Harry asked as they found a concealed alley to use as a secure Apparation point.

"Nothing. She was talking in riddles."

Hermione and Harry shared a look; neither of them were positive that she was lying, but they both had a feeling that she was concealing something.

Whether she was lying to them about something or not, Hermione believed that Daisy was Cassy's mother and that the woman was desperate to have her daughter returned to her. For that reason alone, she was willing to give Daisy the benefit of the doubt.

They Apparated back to the Manor, Daisy riding along with Harry this time. Hermione wasn't sure that her poor arm would be able to take another puncturing so soon after the last one.

This time, Daisy only gagged a few times, but managed to keep her food in her stomach. "Why are we back here?" she demanded. "We're supposed to be out looking for Cassy!"

"We're all tired. I say we get some sleep and start searching in the morning." Hermione was really exhausted. Maybe it was all the mental trauma that she'd been through in the day or maybe she was coming down with something. Either way, it was all she could do to keep her eyes open.

"I'm done doing things your way," Daisy snarled, pacing up the drive towards the Manor. "Our little trip to see the oracle has clearly gotten us nowhere."

Hermione tried to understand that Daisy had lost her daughter and was barely holding herself together, but the woman's complaining was dancing on her last nerve. "Your way clearly didn't find you your daughter. At least we've got some leads. Give us a chance to explore them after some sleep. Exhausted investigators make mistakes and miss obvious clues."

"I'm not going to get any sleep until my daughter is with me again and safe."

"I have a plan," Hermione assured.

"What's this plan then?" Daisy asked sarcastically. She clearly didn't think that Hermione had one.

Looking to Harry, who was just watching quietly, Hermione shrugged. "Where's the one place a goddess of love is most likely to be?"

* * *

Hermione had been so tired that even Daisy noticed. She'd eventually agreed to let everyone get some rest before Hermione fell over or something.

After falling into bed so tired that she only felt the tiniest of twinges that Draco wasn't there with her, Hermione fell asleep. Unfortunately, her dreams were not restful ones. Draco was there, but he wasn't angry with her as she knew that he had to be, so it was only a cruel reminder of what she may never have again. She knew for a fact that Draco wasn't a forgiving person, and she doubted infidelity wasn't something he was willing to just overlook, especially since she didn't really have an explanation for her actions.

In her dream, she was in a plain of infinite emptiness. As far as she could see, there was nothing. Somehow, there was a surface beneath her feet, yet it wasn't something that she could see, it just blended with the rest of the vacant space.

Draco was beside her, watching her take in their surroundings.

"Why do you look so down, Granger?" he asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. He ruined the kindness of the remark by sliding his hand further down her shoulder and reaching for one of her breasts.

She slapped his hand away but leaned against him, solid and warm even in her dream. He even smelled just like Draco. Her imagination was more accurate than she had ever given it credit for. She'd always seen herself as more of a logical than creative creature, but it appeared that she'd been severely underestimating herself.

The couple was distracted from each other when Eros, in all his godly glory, wandered onto the dream plain. He looked perfectly at home in the expanse of nothing that was Hermione's dream world. He was just as impressive as she remembered him being, and probably just as annoying.

"What trouble are you here to cause?" she demanded, stepping away from Draco and crossing her arms over her chest. It was best that she be ready for anything in the presence of Eros – even if he was only a conjuring of her own mind.

Eros looked at her like she was being a naughty child. "I know that you're a little miffed at me for leaving you to your own devices for so long," Draco snorted in disbelief, but Eros just talked right over him, "But I've been horribly busy with my wife, catching up on lost time. I would come to visit myself, but I didn't want to leave Psyche, even for two of my favourite mortals."

Hermione mentally replaced the word "mortals" with "playthings" while Draco was thinking along entirely different lines. His face scrunched up in disgust.

"You're talking to us in a dream because you're shagging her right now, aren't you?"

Eros grinned, not in the least abashed at being caught. "Of course. She's the most gorgeous creature to ever grace either Olympus or the Earth."

That was kind of sweet in a squidgy way. Hermione decided not to dwell on it too long for fear of mental images that she would never be rid of. Instead, she focused on the fact that, according to Eros, who was something of an expert in the matters of his own magic, she and Draco were really there in the same place.

Hermione looked at her partner sideways, pleased to note that Draco didn't seem angry with her. Despite whatever bomb Eros was going to drop on them (because he wouldn't bother with the trip if he wasn't up to something), Hermione was pleased that she was having this dream.

"I'm glad you're happy together once more," Hermione said. And she really was pleased that Eros and Psyche were together again. For powerful immortal beings, they were kind of adorable together. As a god of love, Eros was very virile by nature. While many of his fellow gods strayed on their significant others, Eros remained completely faithful to his wife, even when he was spending nearly a century avoiding her. His devotion was something to admire.

As usual, Draco was less willing to exchange pleasantries. "What are you doing here?"

"I sensed some tension in your bond and came to see how two mortals had managed to unravel some of my best work. Why are you two not together?"

Hermione looked to the stoic blond at her side. "I wasn't myself when I kissed Smith," she said quietly.

While she was almost certain that Draco had witnessed the kiss, she was still a little apprehensive about his reaction to her admittance that she had kissed Smith. It had occurred to her that Draco, in some strange surge of out of character surge of courtesy, was waiting until Eros left to speak to her about what had happened.

Having already figured that out, Draco wrapped an arm around her. Her face clearly said that she thought he was upset with her, so to reassure her, he kissed the top of her head. "I know you weren't."

Hermione leaned against him, sagging with relief. His easy acceptance of her answer took a huge weight off her chest. Telling him that she had been compelled by a mysterious divine magic to kiss someone she had no feelings for whatsoever was a feeble excuse at best. Granted, it had probably worked back when the gods were more involved with the affairs of mortals, but it was much less likely to in present times.

She was so boneless with relief that she was counting on Draco to support her and keep her from pooling on the ground. Thankfully, he had been watching her closely and wrapped a firm arm around her to keep her upright.

Eros, being the interfering god that he was, had been shamelessly eavesdropping on their little exchange. "My _mother _must be involved in this somehow. You were shot with my arrows, and those contain the forever and a day kind of love." His perfect brows furrowed. "The only thing with the power to get between the two of you is another god."

How was it possible that Hermione was exhausted even as she slept? Draco was essentially holding her up all on his own. While Eros went on a little rant about Aphrodite and her scheming, she peeked up at Draco.

"If you're not mad at me, then how come you haven't come back?" She was a strong, stubborn, logical woman and hated it when she let her emotions rule and sounded all vulnerable. Draco was the only one who ever made her feel that way. It was a delicious type of vulnerable though, like waiting for something that could be massively rewarding, made all the more wonderful because of the potential for devastation.

"There's something I have to do before I can come back," Draco said. He didn't seem to want to elaborate any further, despite the curiosity he had to know Hermione was feeling.

Hermione didn't like being left out of the loop, but she trusted him. "Just be careful."

"That goes double for you."

Eros had been eavesdropping again. "You two are so wonderful together; you're going to be wonderful parents when the baby's born." His eyes widened as Hermione and Draco exchanged a surprised look and then both stared at him in confusion. "Did you not know?" Eros sounded a little too delighted for the almost contrite tone to be believable.

"No, we didn't," Draco gritted out.

They had no reason to suspect. Magical contraceptive spells, something that she and Draco were both very careful with, were one hundred percent effective all the time. She stared down at her stomach and then back up at Draco, terrified. If the spells were infallible, then some outside force had to have interfered in some way. She couldn't see Eros doing something like that – at least not with his wife to distract him – so it was most likely his mother.

"Excellent," Eros said. "I'm glad I could be the one to break the news. Dreams are my third favourite way to interfere in the lives of mortals. For the record, my first is shooting them with love arrows and my new second favourite is turning into a lizard and following them everywhere they go." They were still unresponsive, too shocked by the news. Eros didn't seem to mind much though, he just cheerfully continued talking. "And don't worry about my mother, I'll speak to her."

Before any more words could be exchanged by any of them, Eros dissolved the connection he had formed to hijack Hermione's dream. She was left sitting bolt upright in her own bed, gasping for air and covered in a cold sweat.

It was impossible to tell if her dream had been real or something that her imagination had cooked up to cope with recent events. Even worse, she couldn't think of a way to confirm either way without sending a Patronus to Draco. That option was out of the question since she wasn't sure where Draco was and if it would put him in any danger to give away his location with a glowing, speaking otter. She wasn't willing to endanger him because of a dream, even such a thought provoking one.

She flattened a palm against her abdomen, wondering if there was really a tiny person growing inside of her. It was a terrifying and wonderful thought.

There was only one way to find out for sure.

Hermione reached for her wand.

* * *

Harry looked up at the building, shooting a disbelieving glance at her. Hermione had seen him more comfortable facing down an army of Death Eaters.

"_This _is where you think she'll be?" Harry asked in disbelief.

Hermione looked up at the building before them. It wasn't obvious from the exterior what went on inside the large house. Only the creepy man wearing a trench coat, hat, and large shades slipping in the door as if he desperately didn't want to be recognised gave any hint what they were actually looking at.

"Tell me this isn't what I think it is." Harry continued when he didn't get an answer to his first question.

"It's a brothel." Hermione thought about trying to phrase it differently, make it sound like something it wasn't, but she decided against that. Harry was smart, he'd be able to work out pretty quickly that she was twisting words around to make their situation sound more pleasant – and he probably wouldn't appreciate her efforts.

"I suppose brothels fall under Aphrodite's specialty?" Daisy asked. She didn't share Harry's aversion to the place; she only seemed curious.

Hermione shrugged. "Sex for monetary gain is a kind of love." Okay, so not really, but prostitution was still right up Aphrodite's alley and this was the biggest brothel that Hermione could find.

"I worry about you sometimes, Hermione." Harry didn't take his eyes off of the building, but Hermione knew that he'd be looking at her in disapproval if he hadn't been so focused on watching the door the shifty man had entered. It was as if Harry expected the man to make another appearance, this time wielding a gun.

"You shouldn't, Harry. This isn't the first time I've been to a brothel. I'm still the same person."

While this wasn't the first time she'd visited a brother, Hermione certainly didn't make a habit of visiting them. The first and only other time Hermione had been to a brothel was a few years ago when there had been an outbreak of some kind of magical creatures that was turning jaded prostitutes into full grown women who had cried crocodile tears and demanded to colour with their crayons when they should have been working. It had been horrible for business and Hermione and Draco had been called in to get rid of the magical mites that were giving people the mentality of five year olds.

They had done their job and removed the magical creatures before reporting the brothel to the Aurors. It seemed though, that the Aurors hadn't done much to shut down the business.

"What's the plan?" Daisy asked, interrupting what would have probably been a barrage of questions from Harry. "Are we just going to burst in there and demand that they surrender the dangerous goddess that they're harbouring?"

Hermione shook her head. "Facing Aphrodite directly isn't going to get us anywhere. We need to find out what she's up to before facing her. Just follow my lead."

"If she's the one with my daughter and has brought Cassy to a brothel, it'll take more than immortality to keep the bitch safe from me."

They hadn't had much time to plan anything too involved, but that was okay. In this situation, Hermione believed that simple was what they wanted. They weren't going to bother with disguises and covert actions because Hermione seriously doubted that Aphrodite herself was physically inside the brothel. However, Hermione was willing to bet that, at some point, Aphrodite would have paid a visit to this brothel in particular.

Hermione strode forward and pushed open the door without hesitation, not bothering to check behind her to make sure that the other two had followed her.

There was a middle aged woman in the center of the large front room, seated comfortably on a piled of pillows. When she saw Hermione, she smiled, showing off her cigarette yellowed teeth. Other than the poor dental hygiene, this woman was immaculately groomed. Her eyebrows were plucked to thin lines and her lips were carefully traced with blood-red lipstick. All in all, she looked just what Hermione had thought the madam of one of the largest and most successful brothels on the continent would look.

It wasn't the woman though, that had Hermione's attention first, it was the pair of busts sitting on either side of the door she'd just entered. They were perfect likenesses to Aphrodite. Hermione had met the goddess on more than one occasion and it was clear from the detail of the statues that the artist had also laid eyes on the real goddess. These busts were the main reason that Hermione had chosen this brothel in particular.

"Hermione," the woman greeted. "Did one of the girls call you? I don't remember having any problems recently."

"No, Madam Tari. I'm not working. I'm actually here on personal business." Hermione's clear voice was almost a shock after listening to the raspy, sultry purr that Madam Tari adopted even when she wasn't trying to ensnare clients like a spider in a web.

One of Madam Teri's eyebrows rose as amusement twinkled in her eyes. "I wasn't aware that you were interested in the type of 'personal business' my girls provide."

For the first time in a while, Hermione found herself fending off a blush. She had forgotten Madam Teri's sense of humour in the years since she and Draco had been there.

"I'm not interested in that kind of personal business at all. I'm actually here because recent experiences have given me a new understanding of something I saw the last time I was here."

Amusement fading, Madam Tari folded her hands and waited, not going to reveal anything before Hermione put her cards on the table.

Hermione nodded her head towards a large glass display case half hidden behind a curtain in the corner of the room. Perched on a velvet pillow topped pedestal was what looked like a belt made of intricately entwined gold wires and jewels. The metal was slightly worn and seemed very old, ancient even. On their previous visit, it had struck Hermione as out of place in a brothel, but she had dismissed it, not having the knowledge she did now.

"I'm looking for information on Aphrodite and thought you'd be a good person to ask since you have her girdle on display just over there." She nodded her head towards the display case.


End file.
